Opportunities thrive at Fujian's Taiwan Town

Coming back

The return to Pingtan has given restaurant owner Wang and his employees new vitality.

His three restaurants employ about a dozen people, with seven or eight of them from Taiwan, including chef Liu Senmu. Together the eateries generate about 150,000 to 200,000 yuan in monthly revenue, Wang said.

Although he is aged 71, Liu, from Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, still works at one of the restaurants and keeps orders hustling through the kitchen.

Many of the specialties are from his hometown. He folds eggs and oysters into an oyster omelet, then makes tian bu la, fried fish cakes, as customers wait for their food. Liu is happy to see people coming to Pingtan to try flavors he has made for much of his working life.

For him, the restaurant is another stop in a long journey.

He has been on the mainland since 2015, taking Taiwan snacks to different cities and food fairs in search of places where they might find a market.

In 2016, he was selling Taiwan snacks at a tourism and culture expo in Lhasa in the Xizang autonomous region. By then, he had already visited about 15 mainland cities for business and food fairs.

Two years later, he settled in Haikou, capital of Hainan. The climate and food habits there reminded him of Taiwan, and he saw a market for his dishes.

He usually returns to Taiwan once every three months and stays for about a week. The rest of his time he mainly spends working on the mainland.

"I think there are more opportunities here," Liu said. "There are many places where you can try different things."

He moved to Pingtan earlier this year, when Wang invited him to work at the restaurant. Now, young kitchen workers stand beside him, learning how he prepares food and handles a busy service schedule.

Liu has no intention of keeping those skills to himself.

"I can teach them; there is no secret to keep," he said. "If you have a skill, pass it on instead of keeping it to yourself. Young people need a chance to start their own businesses."

yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn