Living in Barcelona: The Qingtian People

Before coming to Spain, I had never heard of the place called Qingtian. I only knew that the largest number of Chinese immigrants in Europe come from Wenzhou. They made their fortune by selling Chinese-made small goods and ready-made clothing in Europe. Qingtian is an hour's drive from Wenzhou. The area has little land and many people, with no industry. Therefore, many people go abroad to work when they are young. The county town has impressive buildings, authentic Western restaurants and cafes, all bearing traces of Europe. Qingtian County has a population of 700,000, and over 500,000 people work in Europe, in Portugal, Italy, and Spain. In their villages, there is a one-stop service: handling visas, going to Shanghai for the visa interview, buying plane tickets, and upon arrival, whether they work or open a store, someone is there to receive and take care of them. They don't speak a word of Spanish before standing behind the counter to do business. Some work on construction sites, some open bakeries, some open household goods supermarkets, and others run bars. Usually, once one person gets established, all the relatives will come out one after another. They can even hold class reunions in Barcelona because everyone is working there anyway. I know a family with five brothers; only one stays home to care for the elderly, while the others are all here doing different businesses. At the same time, they also invest in businesses back in their hometown of Qingtian. Their children all marry other Qingtian people. People from each place share some similar physical traits, and the Qingtian people are no exception. They have round heads, small and delicate builds, and very fair skin. So much so that when my daughter's classmates first met her, they asked her, "Are you Chinese? Why don't you look like us?" There are ways to come to Barcelona without a passport or visa. I heard about a man's experience; it was truly astonishing. Thirty years ago, he paid an agent 9,000 yuan and headed north, passing through Inner Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine, and Hungary. At every border, someone would meet him, taking him over mountains and through rough terrain to avoid border checks. In this way, it took nine months to reach Barcelona. When he first arrived, he moved goods at a friend's warehouse. Later, he opened his own bargain store, bar, and warehouse, doing all kinds of things. No matter how hard it was and even if he had very little money in his pocket, he never stole or robbed; he built his fortune with his own hands.

In China, where do you go if you need needles and thread, pots and pans, stationery and tableware, pillowcases and bed sheets, cleaning supplies, or even home decorations and plants? I don't remember how I solved these problems in China – perhaps at a hardware store, supermarket, or stationery store? In Barcelona, to buy these things, you look for household goods supermarkets run by Chinese people. They are a peculiar presence; locals call them "Chinese stores." When I'm picking out items in the store, local customers ask me where something is, thinking I'm an employee. Chinese people call them "bargain stores" (baiyuan dian), meaning you can find a hundred different things. No household can do without a bargain store. When I first settled in Barcelona, I even visited them twice a day. The goods are sourced from warehouses in the suburbs, and the price is doubled when put on the shelf. Running a bargain store requires no skill; the only requirements are patience and attention to detail. Imagine rows and rows of shelves filled with a dazzling array of items: you need to know their locations and prices by heart, constantly reorganize, and whenever a customer asks a question, immediately pinpoint the exact spot. Restocking new items and putting away old ones is very tedious and monotonous. The owners of the bargain store downstairs from my apartment are a middle-aged couple from Qingtian. We don't talk much, but every time I buy something, the owner rounds down the change, saving me a few cents. Their three children help with stocking or cashiering after school. Later, the two older daughters finished middle school and didn't continue to high school, so the parents took over the shop next door for the elder sister to manage, selling fabrics and small furniture. Their family also has a third shop – a bakery on the corner. It is said that 80% of the chain bakeries in Barcelona are invested in by Chinese people. After they join the franchise, the company provides the bread, store decoration, and staff. I noticed that during holidays, when there's a shortage of help, the children clean the store.

The Chinese classmates in my daughter's class all have families that own stores. One family I'm more familiar with is like many Qingtian people. At first, the father got a tourist visa to go to Portugal, worked on a construction site there, then moved to Barcelona. Five years later, he applied for a residence card and brought his wife and son from Qingtian to join him, and they opened a store together. They opened a bar. The father didn't know how to cook before. The bar was taken over from a fellow Chinese; they started operating without adding any furniture or kitchenware. At first, I found it amazing: how can you open a restaurant without knowing how to cook? This is the beauty of Western food. Most items on the menu can be bought ready-made, such as ham, cheese, and salted fish. Drinks and alcoholic beverages are bought from the supermarket and sold at double the price. Hot dishes are mostly fried foods – buy pre-seasoned frozen ingredients and just fry them. The only things that require hands-on work are Chinese fried rice and stir-fried noodles. The noodles use a very thin rice noodle typical of Zhejiang, which Qingtian people call "chao fen gan." Usually, the father prepares food in the kitchen, while the mother handles cashier and drinks at the front. Later, the elder brother came to work at the store after finishing middle school. They have been open for nine years, seven days a week, without any days off; they haven't even been to Madrid, the capital. They open at 7:30 a.m. and close at 11:00 p.m., repeating this every day, even busier on holidays because there are more tourists, and they don't want to close for rest. On average, they earn between 3,000 and 5,000 euros per month.

Another phenomenon about opening a shop in Barcelona is that a store can be passed down from father to son. Your customers are also nearby residents. They come to your store not because your food tastes good, but because it's close to home, convenient, the dining area has a good view, and they want to sit for a while, read the newspaper, and chat with friends. As long as the weather is nice, customers sit outside under umbrellas rather than inside. In the morning, a coffee and a croissant; at noon, a sandwich and a portion of fried potato chunks; in the evening, a steak with salad – that's the average person's three meals. For the chef, this is a very easy and unchallenging menu. It truly fits the saying: It's not about the taste, it's about the sentiment.