The sign, written in both Arabic and Chinese characters and hoisted above a bland yellow shopfront in Baghdad’s popular Karrada neighbourhood, is hard to miss — “Chinese Restaurant.”
A young woman wearing skintight jeans, her hair blowing in the slight breeze, is sweeping the entrance. “Welcome!” she says in halting English.
Yan returns inside and joins the three others involved in the venture — all Chinese: her husband Tsao, who owns the restaurant, Lo and Wo. Tsao attends to customers, Lo and Wo do the cooking and Yan handles the cleaning.
Tsao, who has been in Baghdad for two years, is the veteran of the team. “I used to work in a store that sold Chinese products,” says the smiling patron in his 40s who, like the others, declined to give more than his first name.
Caught up in the violence which swept Baghdad, the shop closed its doors. Out of work, Tsao returned home to China’s southern Yunnan province where he persuaded his wife and two friends to join him in his unlikely Iraqi dream.
They opened their new business just a week ago.
“This is the only Chinese restaurant in Baghdad,” boasts Tsao in the few Arabic words he knows.
