The Chinatown in Thamel

These days in Thamel, “Ni hao”, a Chinese way of saying “Namaste” or “Hello”, is the most common greeting you will get from the Nepali shop owners whose eyes brighten at the arrival of Chinese tourists.

About three or four years ago, the number of Chinese tourists began to rise. With the increase of Chinese restaurants and shops, especially along Amrit Marg Street in Thamel, the district is becoming known to people as the “Chinatown of Thamel”.

Aijaz Ahmad Rather, owner of Cashmere House at Jyatha, Thamel, started learning Chinese four years ago. “Now almost 90% of my costumers are Chinese,” said Aijaz, who prefers to be called “Aiji”, a Chinese nickname. “Some of them are travelers, some are wholesalers from China.” A traveler from Dalian City in China just bought 70 pieces of Cashmere from Aiji, saying that they are “presents for friends at home”.

In order to do business with more Chinese people, Aiji applied for a Zhifubao account, a Chinese payment account provided by Alibaba, the biggest internet company in China. “When the Chinese buy things from me, they will deposit Renminbi into my account,” Aiji said, but he does not trust the system and never keep money in it. “As soon as I receive the money, I will cash it. I know it is a private company, not a bank, and that’s way I don’t trust it.” Aiji is worried that his money may be used by the company in unsafe ways. Meanwhile, the amount of money transferred to his account never exceeds 3,000 Yuan.

With the help of Chinese restaurant owners nearby, Aiji is able to withdraw money from his account within minutes, even though he does not understand a single Chinese character. “There are many money exchanges in the Chinese restaurants,” said Aiji. “It’s so convenient.”

To swap money at these Chinese-run money exchange, all you need is a Zhifubao account and a stable Wi-Fi. First, you transfer money from your Zhifubao account to that of the exchange owner’s. After the deal is finished, you will get equal value of Rupee at the account table. The exchange rate is based on the standard daily rate, which is higher than the rate of other Nepali exchanges on the streets. For example, if the standard daily rate is 16.85 today, the best rate you can get from a Nepali exchange will only be 15.40.

For Chinese businessmen, setting up such a high rate benefits them as well. It helps them to transfer money they own in Nepal into RMB easily and without risk. In China, one cannot change Nepali Rupee to RMB at any bank except banks in Tibet. Exchanging money using Zhifubao is a convenient and economic method for those Chinese businessmen who live in China but has business in Nepal.

Not only do Chinese businessmen benefit from these Chinese money exchanges, Chinese tourists also find it helpful in shopping. As long as they have enough deposit in Zhifubao, they don’t need much cash to shop in Thamel. What’s more, the mobile version of Zhifubao doesn’t charge any fee for transferring money, while withdrawing money from ATM in Nepal usually costs an additional Rs. 400 fee.

On the other side, some Nepali businessmen have seen the business opportunities brought by Chinese people. They have begun to cooperate with the Chinese in many ways. “I can’t open an online store on Taobao,” said Aiji. Taobao is the biggest online shopping website, also owned by Alibaba. “There are three reasons for that, one is the transportation time would be too long from here to China, second is that I cannot write Chinese descriptions of my goods, third is that I don’t have a professional photographer to take photos of my goods and put them online,” Aiji has discussed with some friends the possibility of extending his business to China by opening an online store, but it seems a slim shot. “Because I cannot open my own store, I sell the goods to those who own one.”

Aiji has a plan to visit China in the coming year, to meet all his Chinese friends on QQ, a Chinese chatting software, to buy a Chinese mobile phone number, and to start his own Taobao account.