Africa is a distant, magical land full of opportunities and challenges, attracting many Chinese enterprises to start a business. How to spell out a better life in Africa? A Heilongjiang man who graduated from Peking University gave the answer with his own story.
In Kigali, the capital of Rwanda in Africa, there are about 3,000 Chinese living there, and Yin Qingri is one of them. He has been in Rwanda for 15 years since 2006, as the president of the Association of Overseas Chinese in Rwanda, Yin Qingri has developed the world's first Kinyarwanda mobile phone, and now runs a Chinese restaurant and a Chinese supermarket with his family in Kigali.
During this year's Spring Festival, Yin Qingri supermarket in the Shandong dumpling powder and Shanghai honey rice dew sold particularly well, but before these two seemingly ordinary Chinese food in Rwanda is difficult to buy, Yin Qingri is through the new e-commerce Pinduoduo shopping, through the container transported to the dock, these goods crossed the ocean to Kigali more than 8,000 kilometers away from China, and finally appeared in the Chinese restaurant and supermarket shelves operated by Yin Qingri. Chinese and Rwandans living in Rwanda are able to taste these two unique Chinese foods.
From one single at a time to hundreds of orders at a time
In September 2019, by chance, Yin Qingri began to buy things on Pinduoduo, and the first time he bought a product was a data line, and the price was favorable and the quality was good. After that, he began to try to buy small household appliances, charging treasures, headphones and other electronic devices on Pinduoduo, and Yin Qingri began to think that he might be able to purchase Chinese restaurants and supermarket goods from Pinduoduo.
In Guangzhou, Yin Qingri has a long-term stable cooperation food supplier, but some special foods, such as rice noodles in Xinjiang and rice in Heilongjiang, guangzhou suppliers have no way to provide, but Pinduoduo can search for any regional specialty food that comes to mind. According to reports, Yin Qingri placed an order through the mobile phone client, and the package would be sent directly to the warehouse in Guangzhou, and a batch of centralized procurement would be filled with a cabinet and then it would be sent to the wharf by sea to Rwanda. Normally, a consolidation container has 58 cubic meters, and logistics and transportation plus customs clearance costs account for about 48% of the total cost. Now Yin Qingri will purchase tens of thousands of yuan of food on Pinduoduo every month, hundreds of express parcels of large and small sizes, in order to ensure the freshness of food, each purchase Yin Qingri will consult with customer service about the shelf life of the goods, to the latest date.
In Rwanda, there are a total of four Chinese supermarkets, in order to enhance the competitiveness of the store, Yin Qingri began to try to purchase more Internet celebrity products on Pinduoduo, such as snail powder, Zi Hi pot, milk tea, Wangzai milk candy, Qiuling Gevas, Tsingtao Beer, Xu Fuji Chocolate, Weilong Spicy Strips, Golden Pigeon Melon Seeds, Hollywood Fries, etc., and also purchased instant noodles from Brands such as Master Kang, Tang Da Ren, White Elephant, XinLa Noodles, and Nanjie Village. Among them, the honey rice dew purchased on Pinduoduo is very popular in the Chinese circles in Rwanda, Yin Qing Japan came to buy this product with a try-and-see mentality, did not expect the feedback to be very good, has been in short supply, before each time to buy 2 boxes, now a time to buy 6 boxes.
People who live overseas sometimes miss the taste of their hometown. Yin Qingri, who was born and raised in Heilongjiang, left his hometown for many years, but has been obsessed with the tofu milk in his hometown, before he purchased from suppliers in Guangzhou many times without success, accidentally found his hometown Kedong curd milk on Pinduoduo, he suddenly felt very kind, and when it was mailed to his home in Rwanda, he ate a bite of hometown taste thousands of miles away, he felt that it was the taste of missing, and that moment was very satisfied. Now, hometown flavors from The North and South of the Great River, such as Dried Figs from Xinjiang, Red Goji Berries in Ningxia, Lilies in Hunan, and Knife-Cut Noodles in Shanxi, can be bought in Yin Qingri's shop. For Yin Qingri, the variety of goods has become more and the taste has become more, so that the Chinese who live and work here can find what they miss and like, which is a happier thing than making money.
From treadmills to purple clay pots
In Yoon's Chinese restaurants and supermarkets, more than 80 percent of customers are Chinese, and the remaining 20 percent are Rwandans, Japanese and Koreans. There is a post-90s Harbin girl who works as a ticket agent in Rwanda who especially likes to eat dried durian, and since she bought it once in Yin Qingri's supermarket, she has become a loyal fan of his family's supermarket, and every time she buys dried durian, she will buy some other snacks by the way.
Yin Qingri's Chinese supermarket has attracted many locals to come to buy, and the local area is still in a state of lockdown due to the epidemic, but there is no shortage of supermarket goods. (Photo: Yin Qingri)
Whether in Rwanda or China, Pinduoduo is Yin Qingri's first choice for online shopping. Yin Qingri said: "Through Pinduoduo, I experienced the convenience brought by the popularization of e-commerce, so that we in Rwanda can also enjoy this simple and simple benefit." Domestic express delivery services and Rwanda compared to really enviable, through the parcel, I know that now the domestic express delivery companies have China Post, SF, Yunda, Zhongtong, Jitu and so on, almost 10. The packaging is also very strong, I have bought purple clay pot ceramics and glasses many times, and after receiving them, there is no damage. ”
Chinese tea sets such as purple sand pots are one of the most repurchased products on Pinduoduo in Yin Qingri, and even if they are mailed across the ocean to Rwanda, they have never been damaged. (Courtesy photo: Yin Qingri)
In addition to purchasing a variety of purple clay pot tea sets, Yin Qingri recently began to buy books on Pinduoduo, purchasing more than 200 books related to Chinese culture, such as "Zizhi Tongjian", "Shuowen Jiezi", "Shan Hai Jing", "Chinese Celebrity Biography", etc. He is ready to make a book corner in the Chinese restaurant for customers who come to dine to read and borrow. He said that everyone is far overseas, and flipping through Chinese culture books is also a kind of spiritual comfort, and it can also let the Children of Chinese born in Rwanda understand China's history and culture.
After 15 years of hard work, Yin Qingri's life in Rwanda is getting better and better, and he is also a microcosm of the struggle of more than 3,000 Chinese people in Rwanda. I hope that in the near future, whether you are in Rwanda, Africa or beijing, China, people can easily spell out their own order.
China Jilin Network Jike APP reporter Wang Xiaodan