Trader on the new Silk Road: working at the Dubai Dragon Mart

Samuel Sue is one of thousands of Chinese merchants who have moved to Dubai to sell their goods, making the Dragon Mart China's biggest export market in the Gulf.

Samuel Sue says part of the reason he came to the Emirates was to add some adventure to his life.

DUBAIi // Samuel Sue stands behind the counter of his store in the Dragon Mart, picking at a small tray of rice and other dishes with a pair of chopsticks. What this 25-year-old Chinese businessman longs for most is authentic food from home. While it may look similar to what Mr Sue used to eat in Guangxi, the province in southern China where he was born, the food sold at outlets in the UAE is never quite the same.

"The sauce is different," he says. "It is made by people here and the taste has changed." But while he misses his favourite food, Mr Sue has no immediate plans to return to China. He has become part of a modern-day re-creation of the legendary Silk Road that once linked the Middle East with east Asia. In recent years, thousands of traders from the world's most populous country moved here to sell goods made in their home country at Dragon Mart, helping to make this China's largest export market in the Gulf. The 150,000-sq-metre, 1.2km-long dragon-shaped mall opened its doors on Al Awir Road, Dubai, in 2004.

Mr Sue moved here in 2007 as a translator in a Chinese medical herbs store. In August he took his current job, managing an outlet that sells electronics, most of them made by a company called JBS. With the economic slowdown, business has become more difficult, but Mr Sue believes Dubai still offers good opportunities. "On a television, before we had maybe Dh400 (US$109) or Dh500 profit, now we get Dh100 or Dh200," he says. "The customers look at price more than quality.

"The people, before when they came, what they liked they would take. Now they always need a discount. "But Dubai is still a charming centre for business. People from around the Gulf area, from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, they come to Dubai to purchase rather than go directly to China." One challenge Mr Sue and his fellow traders face is convincing consumers that Chinese products, while cheap to buy, are not cheaply made. He insists the battle is gradually being won at Dragon Mart, which is home to nearly 4,000 Chinese businesses.

"In this area, the people didn't recognise Chinese products," he says. "They said Chinese products are always low quality. But for the past five years the people have started getting close to Chinese products and they have realised that they are not that bad. They see it's superb. Now we have educated the people." It was not just business opportunities that drew Mr Sue to the UAE. He said he also came because he is young and "needs some adventure".

Mr Sue's real name is Jieai Su but, like many of his countrymen, he has also taken an English name. The first name Samuel was given to him in 2000 by a teacher at an English training camp. Mr Sue's interest in English extended to earning a degree in English literature at Guangxi University for Nationalities. But despite his skills as a linguist, Mr Sue acknowledges he has only basic Arabic. "I try but it's difficult because around me the people, most of them speak English, even the local people," he says.

Mr Sue's province of Guangxi is home to many Chinese who, like him, are members of the Zhuang people, the most numerous of China's ethnic minority groups with a total population of 18 million. Still living there are Mr Sue's older brother and two older sisters, a niece, a nephew and his parents. Mr Sue says he misses them, but the distance separating him from his family in China is, in practical terms, no larger than the distances that separate people in his vast home country. Modern air travel means China and the UAE are not that far apart.

"Flights are very convenient," he says. "From one province of China to another, it can take two days or three days. From Beijing to Guangxi it's three days." In any case, as a Chinese person Mr Sue says there is no reason for him to feel alone in the Emirates. "When I was here two years ago, when you met a Chinese guy you would be very happy or very surprised as it feels like home," he said. "Now it feels like everywhere there are Chinese people."

Mr Sue has plenty of Chinese friends in the UAE, sharing a villa with some of them. He attends church with them on his one day off each week, and the group makes sure to mark the main Chinese celebrations together. "We always cook Chinese food and in every festival - we have many festivals - we gather together the special food at this time," he says. There are no festivals bigger than the celebrations surrounding the Chinese Spring Festival or Chinese New Year, which this year falls on February 14. Mr Sue is looking forward to celebrations that will involve thousands of Chinese people in the UAE.

"For us it's a big party," he says with a smile. [e-mail]