Ting

In this program you are invited to meet 28- year-old Chinese, Ting, who will share with you what it is like to be living in Romania. Ting has been living in Romania for 8 years and he is currently the owner of a Chinese fast food restaurant called Hao Chi, which translates into English as Yummy. The restaurant is small but customers can relish various types of Chinese food from the early hours of the day. Ting himself is the cook and he is also helped by his mother. His girlfriend is Romanian and she gives a hand whenever she can.

Roxana Vasile, 18.11.2015, 17:05

Ting has a family business he is very proud of. But what made him set up a business in Romania? “In my family parents have always said that the boy should go to a foreign country to see what life there is like. My cousin was already here when I first came to Romania, she had her own business and I came to help, but eventually I ended up setting up my own business. Now both China and Romania are my homes”.

Meanwhile Ting is trying to improve his Romanian language, which he still has difficulty in speaking fluently. His effort to make himself understood by his friends and especially his customers is really remarkable. He opened his restaurant about 2 months ago and is doing his best to get things work well.

Ting : “We want to do the best we can for the Romanians. We want to offer them the best Chinese food, fresh and not very expensive. Every morning I wake up at 6, I arrive at the restaurant where I start preparing the food and then I wait for my clients. I am the cook, the shop assistant, I am in charge of food procurement, I do it all”.

His mother is also helping him with the business: “I have brought my mother along to Romania to help me. My father is still in China because he is working, he has not retired yet, but when he retires he will come to Romania too. My mother is not very convinced that she likes living in Romania. Back in China she had lots of friends but she hasn’t made any friends here.”

Ting does not have too much time on his hands. He works from Monday to Sunday, and he starts early in the morning and ends late at night. He never goes on holiday but doesn’t complain. On the contrary, he says this is the Chinese way, they are used to working very hard. If at first, when he set foot in Romania, he wanted to open a leather and jewellery business, he subsequently changed his mind. He decided to offer Bucharesters quality Chinese food at a reasonable price, his clients being the people in the neighbourhood and the employees of the well-known Dinamo sports club, located nearby.

Ting has also made a very interesting confession: Romania, his adoptive country, has brought him quiet: “In Romania there isn’t so much noise like in China. In China there are very many people who speak very loudly. People in Europe speak in a lower voice”.

As to the Romanian cuisine Ting is very fond of the famous Romanian polenta and also of mici — the Romanian minced meat sausages and of the tripe soup, which he compares to something that he ate when in Turkey.

During the day Ting is permanently connected to the Internet, to see if there are any food orders placed online and he also browses through the Chinese sites to stay abreast of the latest information from his native country China. From time to time, when he finishes work at the restaurant and if he does not feel exhausted, he goes out with his friends for a coffee. Most of his friends are Romanian. He is optimistic and hopes that things will work out well for him.