| Username |
Post |
| ashu |
Posted
on 04-Sep-02 08:23 PM
Hi all,
For the last two months, I have noticed an intriguing phenomenon in Kathmandu.
There are now many Chinese street-vendors in Kathmandu, selling watches, calculators, plates, bowls and other assorted knick-knacks.
These vendors, usually working in pairs, simply sit by the road in Thamel, Indrachowk, Kamladi and other areas, and spread their wares -- a la haat-bazaar-style in the Tarai -- in an effort to sell to the passers-by. These street-vendors do not speak Nepali, and whenever you pick up one of their items, they immediately show the price to you on a calculator.
One friend, who travels around Kathmandu quite a lot delivering water-jars to offices, estimates that there are about 500-700 such Chinese street-vendors all over Kathmandu. Moreover, these vendors do not appear to be Tibetans from Lhasa or Khasa, but proper Chinese from further North of Tibet, from Chinese provinces. And from what little I can gather, they appear to be rural Chinese peasants, searching for better economic opportunities.
Surely, for this many Chinese street-vendors to be in Nepal, they must have appropriate visas and papers.
Still, my questions: What's really going on here? What are the deeper, underlying economic, cultural and political reasons for this sudden boom, as it were, in Chinese
street-vendors in Kathmandu?
If anyone from The Kathmandu Post or any other paper is reading this, you could do an interesting news-report on this.
PS: My classmates at Biswo Bhasa Campus say that these street-vendors are perfect partners to practice their Chinese.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 04-Sep-02 11:52 PM
Ashu,
I can imagine such scenario in the street of Kathmandu. Much of inland Chinese
provinces, i.e. Sichuan, Qinghai, Ningxia, etc. are very poor, and are located
next to Tibet.
The communism of China has undergone evolution, and money has been
a mainstay of Chinese creed these days.That is goading people to new and
uncharted territories.
One of the surprises I had in China was this: that a lot of Chinese thought that
there is HEAVEN outside China. God knows why they think that way. For them,
it doesn't matter where NEPAL, THAILAND or even Maldives is, if it is not in
Africa, it must be a great place. I never understood why they thought that
way. It is not lack of information, but lack of eagerness in their part to explore
the truth, probably comparable to the same trait in Nepali Yuwaharu when it
comes to USA.
So, my point is, as new opportunities to go outside China became available to
the Chinese people, they are bound to move and see new world, and get
slowly demystified of foreign world. The street vendors are probably the
young wanderers, who wanted to see new place, and if possible, earn some
money.
Make sure they are not from the province of Sichuan before you practice
Chinese. A lot of Sichuanese peasants speak with heavy accent, and are
thus inaccessible to unaccostumed ones.
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| ashu t |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 10:01 AM
Hi all,
Somehow I can't post using my own name here. Let's see if this goes through.
What follows is an email from someone who prefers to remain anonymous.
This is here with the person's permission.
Enjoy this take on the topic.
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
***********************
Dear Ashu
You can post this on Sajha board, if you wish to, but I want to remain anonymous.
Yes, there has been a significant growth of Chinese vendors in Kathmandu, the estimated figure is around 700-900.
I contradict your point: they are not here for a better living. They sell watches, pens, shaving machines, etc. on over subsidized rate. How much do you think they make in any given day? I assume that the figure is around 1500-2000, if they are lucky.
1. They don’t seem to be from Tibet. They are as far as from Chengdu and Qingdao. They also have valid Visa and passport to enter and live in Nepal. A friend of mine just informed me that it costs around 300-350 USD to come to Nepal via Shanghai and around 150-250 USD to enter Nepal through Tibet (assuming that they come from Chengdu, Qingdao and other provinces). Let’s do this simple calculation-
200 USD- 350 US= 16000 – 28000 NRS
Now, if they make 2000 NRS/day by selling goods, it will take them 8-14 days just to earn the amount they spend on coming here. This means, they have to stay for another 8-14 days to earn the money to go back. This hardly leaves them with any profit.
(Here’s an interesting fact: nepali tourist visa is issued for 30 days only)
2. They seem to know a lot—actually more than enough—about Nepal and China, and you can’t expect this from someone who is a poor farmer/seller, who is here to make a better living. Going by the above figures, they seem to be actually losing money here. This should make you think:
a) Who is funding them?
b) Why are they here?
About their funding, I am 99.9% sure that they are being funded by someone/some institution.
Why are they here? My take on this is that they are here to know/learn/understand Nepal and all that is happening in Nepal, most notably the RAW, CIA, ISI and the Maoist movements in the valley, and in Nepal in general.
There’s one thing you missed out : There are more female vendors than males. If you look into intelligence agencies’ history, you’ll find that females are the most valuable source of information.
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| - |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 10:17 AM
Interesting subject. Hopefully someone will report on this and government will take hard look into it.
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| correction |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 10:21 AM
Qingdao should be corrected as a Qinghai (Province), north to Tibet where immigrant 'han' chinese are in large numbers.
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| paramendra |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 10:23 AM
Whenever something went wrong in India, Indira Gandhi used to say: "Is mein bidesiyon ka haat hai."
:-)
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| LamjungKunchha |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 10:31 AM
I was really surprized to hear that when my visiting sibling told me there were a lot of chinese hawkers in Kathmandu. Thanks for providing more information.
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| sparsha |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 10:52 AM
Well, I don't know if there is any foreign agency involved in bringing these Chinese vendors in the streets of kathmandu but the concerned administrative agency(ies) should pay close attention to these vendors.
1. Who are they? (Which province/region in china are they from and what they used to do there? )
2. Where do they live? Who is providing them place(s) to live?
3. What brings them to Nepal?
4. How many of them are returning/first time vendors?
5. What type of visas do they have and what is the length of stay granted? and where the visa was granted?
6. Who provides them the merchandise they sell?
7. What if , if they disappear with a crime? Does any body of the govt. know where to look for them?
.
.
.
.
if they don't speak in Nepali then who speaks in Chinese or whatever their langugae is with them? WHO IS THEIR "MALIK?" / "MAIPAB"? What do these Maibaps do?
The concerned body of the government should be alerted NOW. More we wait more complicated the scenerio may develop into.
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| dirk |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 02:23 PM
I think the Chinese Intelligence agency has better ways to conduct espionage or gather intelligence than through some vendors who can hardly speak the local tongue. Don't you think so. May be they've just come to make a few bucks...staying illegally by overstaying their visas.
I think the anonymous writer should better look into RAW's activities in Nepal. These agents look local and probably has infiltrated the higher echelons of politics, the media, the police and some suspect even the army. They pose the gratest threat to Nepal.
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| anepalikt |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 02:32 PM
It should be interesting to find out who these vendors and why they are in Nepal.
But despite the speculations that seem to being made here about these folks being Chinese spies, I fail to believe that the Chinese government would be so indiscreet. I remember meeting some Chinese Embassy staff and they were not only conversant in Nepali, but fluent. And their accents impeccable. If they were indeed interested in finding out about Maoist gatibidhi, the Chinese, I am sure, could do much better than sending a bunch of conspicuous peasants who do not speak the local language, and thus have no understanding of what is being said, to the loiter in the middle of Kathmandu.
These people might indeed be economic migrants! Maybe they are selling more than cheap watches. Someone said there are more women than men. Well, are they also "selling" the women? I am not trying to be salacious and suggest that anyone go solicit to find out, but knows. I have heard stories of poverty in China. Look at Nepali economic immigrants to countries around the world. Most do not make six figures and live like kings. Migrants are motivated by myriad reasons. Sometimes it is worth their while to get out of an economically depressed areas and socially/politically oppressive regimes. Maybe being a freewheeling street vendor is better than being a slave in a Chinese factory. Who knows!
But whatever it is, without discouraging folks to find out who these people are and why they are there, I would say, be a little cautious and don't jump the xenophobia bandwagon. I think Paramendra hit the nail on the head with that I. Gandhi quote.
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| psychodreamer |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 02:39 PM
Is it possible that they are drug trafficking ??
Its hard to be influenced by the idea that they can be here for espionage because tespionage is something which is done secretely.
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| Logical Sense |
Posted
on 05-Sep-02 03:13 PM
Nepal is Added as Chinese Tourist Destination!
Common guys! Think logically!
Today's Daku don't come to your house announcing their arrival!
The fact is recent addition of Nepal as a 'tourist destination' by Chinese authorities and free exchanges between Chinese and Nepalese currencies by NRB might have opened the sudden flow of these economic migrants. If you go to nearby Chinese cities you might find Nepalese vendors, just like you find Nepalese (and Tibetans residing in Nepal) vendors in Indian cities selling winter clothings.
They come and go. No harm to Indian cities, no harm to Nepalese cities!
Let us worry about wolves inside the jackals hives!
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 06-Sep-02 08:03 PM
I am surprised by the degree of cynicism in our posters regarding China.
I don't understand why are we so much self-centric, so desperate to define
ourselves as the center of universe? And why we love conspiracy theory
so much? Why we think as if we are the center of universe and everybody
is trying to watch us, or operate their operation from Kathmandu?
The Chinese are there because they are poor and want to make money.I
don't think they flew there from Beijing or any coastal province. Most likely
they were vendors in Lhasa, or wanderers in some inland Sichuan etc,
and went to Nepal to see Nepal, and for fun, and of course, for money.
Before liberalization in India, we Nepalese used to say that our Jeans (denim)
pants are in big demand in India. Ditto same thing in China. They think their
stuffs sale like hot cake in foreign countries(poor countries specially).From
one billion+ people, these some people went to Kathmandu to test that.
Any surprise?
Ours is a country where leaders of political parties offer themselves for sale
to foreign embassies. Ours is a country where leaders/politicians are purchased
by foreign embassies for nothing but mere scholarships to their kids. If we
don't really know more about our leaders, lets start looking at the family
of leaders. Where is a need to send flamboyant herds of Chinese to the
street of Nepal to gather information?
China has always been a big riddle to foreigners. Before going to China, I was
ignorant about her, after living their for five years, I am still ignorant about her,
but at a higher level, I admit. But do I suspect her of sending her intelligent
officers to our street that openly?
No.
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