In Kampar City, Chinese restaurants, clinics, travel agencies are all available.
Jinbao City is a commercial district where Chinese gathers. Between the neat terraced houses, many restaurants, grocery stores, hairdressers, are written in Chinese. Chinese supermarkets, Chinese restaurants, Chinese clinics are scattered throughout the area, and shops are usually opened on the first floor of terraced houses. Chinese-style dishes are also common here, such as shabu mutton in Beijing, barbecued dumplings in the northeast, Teochew cuisine and so on.
In the eyes of many people, this is Phnom Penh's "Chinatown", and Chinese from the north of the world Chinese the familiarity of the language, and tacitly connects them.
Reporter: Mo Zhixia
Editor: Pan Meiqi
It is understood that Jinbao City opened in 2011 and has 7 floors, the 3rd floor is a shopping mall, and the 5th floor is a hotel. There are local Cambodian goods concentrated here, Jinbao City electronic equipment brands are also relatively complete, and Huawei's after-sales center. The completion of Jinbao City has also made the surrounding commercial streets prosperous.
Next to the Kampar City mall, the first floor of the townhouses is full of shops.
The perimeter of Kampar City is divided by roads in a tic-tac-shaped pattern leading to the main road. The Jinbao City Mall surrounded by the middle is the gathering place of trends in this area. Now, although there are still branded cosmetics counters, children's playgrounds, and dining streets in Kampar City, it is difficult to compare with the previous grandeur.
A local said that when the wet market was not yet opened, most of the people here were locals, but now about 60% of them are Chinese restaurants, as well as Chinese clinics and Chinese supermarkets.
Perhaps the name carries people's expectations of wealth and a better life, and "Kampar City" is given the original meaning of luck, attracting more and more Chinese. In the eyes of some Cambodian drifters, this is their first stop to familiarize themselves with Cambodia.
When a viaduct was built next to it, the more large and small merchants overtook it, the place began to decline, and the surrounding locals began to shop elsewhere.
Eri is from Taiwan and has been in Cambodia for five years and has opened a hairdresser in Kampar City. She told reporters that when she first came, she felt that there were more Koreans around, and slowly, the Chinese increased.
After the changes in China's entry and exit in 2023, a large wave of Chinese took advantage of the opening of the country to buy a ticket to go home to visit relatives. "Some people have gone back, and they haven't come back yet."
Return from Westport to Phnom Penh and back to Campbell City
Mei Ling is a Cambodian Chinese who runs a textile wholesale business in Kampar City. However, Kampar City is not the first stop for Meiling's business choices. In 2019, Meiling graduated from university, borrowed money from her mother, chose Westport as her first stop of entrepreneurship, and opened a small shop to sell textiles. She said that her store was small at the time, but it was well located, and she lost the first two months and started making money in the third month.
After a few years, she made good friends with customers, accumulated her first pot of gold, and after getting married, she returned to Phnom Penh to open a large storefront and hire eight locals. After having a storefront, she and her husband opened textile factories in China and Cambodia.
Since she used to work in a Chinese school, Meiling has some pinyin foundation, she often deals with Chinese when doing business, her Chinese is getting better and better, and her Chinese customers are increasing. In the store in Kampar City, one of her clerks has gradually been able to communicate with customers with Chinese for several years.
During the reporter's interview, a medium-sized truck slowly arrived, several workers were moving the newly shipped goods to the store, Meiling took the delivery note, and carefully recorded the accounts of the goods list.
Meiling is in the store, and the finance and management are all taken care of.
She said, "In the Westport store, when I was busy, I had to eat lunch at two o'clock. Supervising workers to install mattresses, sometimes staying up until twelve o'clock. ”
Meiling said that to open up the local market here, it is necessary to pay attention to what the locals need, and now Cambodians are very interested in Chinese goods, such as her bed four-piece set, and even some Chinese snacks, there is also a market.
Less Chinese, rely on old customers
After Chinese return, Meiling's business was still affected. She told reporters that the current business is based on local old customers. In the past, when there were many Chinese, Chinese supermarkets often sold out of stock, and soon came to her to buy goods.
She said that in the past, Chinese customers accounted for 70%, but now they account for only 35%. "Now we mainly do the local market in Cambodia." Due to the communication advantage of Chinese and Cambodian, her mother has experience in textile business, and Meiling has become a wholesaler in many textile retail stores by relying on word of mouth and the introduction of old customers.
Today, the restaurant industry is still the majority of Chinese involved. On weekday afternoons, restaurants are sparsely crowded. In some shops, a few local clerks sit together and chat, waiting for the arrival of the evening market. A newly opened lamb shop sent staff to distribute leaflets, and because there were not many pedestrians on the road, the clerks knocked on the door of one shop after another to distribute the leaflets as soon as possible.
There are many Chinese restaurants outside Kampar City, which are sparsely crowded in the evening.
Eri also said that after Chinese return, she mainly relied on old customers, and over the years, she has gradually accumulated a number of customers from South Korea, the United States and Australia. She said with a smile, "My shop is not very long, and the hairdresser next door has been in Kampar City for ten years." ”
A traveler-related person told reporters that his travel agency helps Chinese companies in Cambodia apply for visas, but the customs entry and exit process is still very strict, and the process sometimes hinders. "Entry visas are not so easy to do now."
When entering a restaurant, you have to be lucky
Some merchants in Jinbao City found that the turnover rate of restaurants here has become higher. Over the years, some stores have changed hands five times. "Some stores have changed owners, and some have changed their restaurants and changed them directly to another store." One merchant said.
The owner of a food stall in Jinbao City told reporters that the number of people opening shops in Jinbao City has increased recently, so there are more choices of restaurants. "The more choices, the fewer natural customers." As for their shop, business is about the same as before.
Before dinner, the hostess from Fujian had already prepared dinner. This is the habit of catering people. Dinner is always eaten early, as after the evening and supper, it is the busiest time of the day.
However, there are Chinese returnees, and there are people who come here in search of opportunities. In Jinbao City, there are restaurants selling one after another, and they want to find someone to take over.
Aunt Su's two daughters took over a friend's restaurant and planned to do more side jobs in Kambo City. They invited a barbecue chef in the northeast, and immediately invited their mother in the northeast to make one of the store's signature dishes, flapjacks and northeastern dumplings. Aunt Su, who was originally retired in her hometown, agreed without hesitation because she was worried about her daughter.
At the beginning of May, the weather in the northeast has entered early summer, but compared to Cambodia, one is in the subtemperate zone and the other is in the tropics, and the Cambodian heat makes Aunt Su feel uncomfortable.
In Phnom Penh, she has more important tasks in mind: looking at shops, cooking, and bringing new people. A few Cambodian employees invited could not say Chinese, and Aunt Su could only teach them hand-in-hand. "Gesture to let them do things."
Now, there are seven waiters in the store, who help the cook. After a period of teaching, the Cambodian waiters began to learn to make dumplings, and when they saw Aunt Su start cooking spicy and hot, the waiters knew that they had to step forward to hand over the bowl and help serve the dishes. When she saw Aunt Sue pick up the skewers, the waiter knew that she was going to start wearing vegetarian dishes.
After Aunt Su taught, the Cambodian waiters also began to learn to cook Chinese food.
Aunt Su said that the cost of doing business in Phnom Penh is not low at all.
She gave the reporter a rough calculation. Although it is cheap to hire workers, less than $200 a month, it is necessary to control food and control, and the turnover of people is also large.
But some ingredients cannot be bought here, and they have to be transported from China through the cold chain. To buy a freezer here, it costs almost 40,000 yuan. Meat dishes can be purchased from the wet market and sent over. However, if you lack seasoning in the meal, you have to go to the supermarket to buy it. And the seasoning in the supermarket is not cheap. "In Phnom Penh, the price of vegetables is almost catching up with the price of meat."
At that time, a batch of fresh ingredients was delivered from the vegetable market, and the barbecue chef quickly pressed it with a calculator and calculated an account, saying: "This stack of bills is at least 700 US dollars." ”
Aunt Su looked forward to working for her daughter's shop for a few months, and when the business slowly got on track, she could return to her hometown in the northeast with peace of mind.
【Further reading】
Illegal gambling halls in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, were investigated, and gamblers fled
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