IMAGINE moving halfway around the world to a place where you have never been and to a home you have only seen online.
Well that has been the case for thousands of Hong Kong residents.
And now their presence is being felt and warmly welcomed in Warrington town centre.
After Hong Kong experienced something of a mass exodus over the past few years when the Chinese Government imposed new laws criminalising protests in June 2020, critics of Beijing were left fearing for their safety as a result.
A visa scheme allowing natives of Hong Kong – a former British colony – to apply for UK citizenship opened in February last year, with around 300,000 expected to apply over the next five years.
Since the visa scheme came into play, whilst initially the interest was directed to London, gradually the north has become increasingly popular, with the realisation that the north offers better value for money when purchasing a property.
Warrington, with its grassy suburbs and ideal links to main cities like Manchester and Liverpool, has quickly become a popular place for nationals to settle and start a new life.
More than 2,000 Hong Kong residents now call Warrington their home.
The integration of a Hong Kong culture into the community has brought exciting new businesses onto the scene with traditional cuisine such as egg waffles and bubble tea, now accessible to locals.
Dream Chan, owner of new waffle bar ‘Shining Rainbow Dream Tea & Snacks’ detailed how their traditional home delicacies have been well received by Warringtonians.
She said: “Business is good, and the locals are extremely kind and welcoming”.
The waffle bar, located on Sankey Street, opened this year at the end of May and sells luxury egg waffles with a delicious variety of toppings and ice cream as well as much-loved bubble tea and their newest addition of a candy floss machine.
Dream and her husband Ralf moved to Warrington early last year from Hong Kong and run the establishment with the help of family, having previously owned a bubble tea business back home.
Dream said: “Many Chinese people have moved to this area in the last year and as a community we help each other with our businesses. We decided to open the waffle shop to bring an element of home to the area.”
She added: “The people of Warrington seem extremely friendly, and we get lots a locals coming in to try the bubble tea and waffles, people regularly come back to complement our food.”
With an extensive bubble tea menu on offer, there are plenty of flavours to try, a favourite being the brown sugar fresh milk pearl tea and matcha fresh milk red bean.
Dream detailed how a pop-up store will also be opening in Manchester soon on weekends to widen their northern fan base.
Rival waffle shop, brand new to the high street having opened in July is ‘Waffle House 404’.
Ran by young couple and fellow Hong Kong nationals, Horace Chew and Kerry Chan, the shop features a similar menu with egg waffles and bubble tea as their speciality.
Horace and Kerry, both 26, have taken on a brave venture having never ran a shop before, but wanted to make the popular cuisine available to locals and the ever-growing Hong Kong community.
Kerry described always having a lifelong ambition of owning her own shop, so after moving to the UK last December with their family to live in a ‘better environment’, the couple made the leap.
Kerry said: “I have always dreamed of opening my own waffle place, I enjoy it a lot and we love working together.”
Detailing the steady flow of business so far, Horace said: “Business is good, and the locals are very friendly. There is a growing community of people from Hong Kong who know and recognise our food, but I was really surprised at how many local people had never heard of bubble tea before.
“Waffles are a big thing in Hong Kong, and it has gone down really well here too.”
Horace described how traditionally the waffles are served with a sauce on top back home but they have added the option of ice cream and toppings to appeal more to locals.
A unique topping they serve is the fried chicken waffle which looks as tasty as it sounds.
Explaining the thought behind the name of the shop, Horace said: “When you search for something online and the internet can’t find it, it comes up with ‘error 404’, we decided to call it Waffle House 404 to say to customers that the waffles we serve here you won’t find anywhere else.”
A growing menu favourite has so far proved to be the apple and cinnamon waffle as well as the double chocolate dipped waffle.
Another business that has recently opened within town centre is one of Warrington’s first Hong Kong supermarkets, HKG Superstore, located in Cockhedge shopping centre.
Opened only recently in March this year, the shop features a variety of Asian foods that ‘cannot be found in regular supermarkets’.
Childhood friends and owners of the business, Cyrus Leung and Kevin Chui, moved to Warrington from Hong Kong last year with their families, Kevin first relocating to Woolston in September and Cyrus later moving to the WA4 area in July.
Cyrus detailed how he and his wife decided to leave Hong Kong and move to the UK after wanting a nicer educational environment for their two young daughters.
He said: “We moved here because of the great education that is on offer in the UK, in Hong Kong the exams and school work is extremely high pressure. We wanted our children to learn in a different environment.”
After much research, the two owners decided to move to Warrington and start up a business which Cyrus described as a ‘big risk’, having neither ever owned a shop before.
He said: “We chose Warrington because it is a nice peaceful and safe place to live. After moving here, we noticed there were no Chinese supermarkets for us to buy our home foods and that is when we came up with the idea for our business.
“We are the first Hong Kong supermarket in Warrington, and we would like to introduce the Hong Kong food culture to the local people.”
Kevin detailed how an important element of the business not only is the Asian foods but also to support and promote other Hong Kong businesses in surrounding areas, using their large notice board to allow growing businesses to advertise, including language tutors offering their services to Hong Kong nationals.
Kevin and Cyrus first met in school and have been friends for more than 13 years.
Kevin said: We like working together, opening the store is a risk but we are just trying to develop the business and adapt to UK culture.”
To find out more information about the businesses mentioned, check out their social media accounts; @shiningrainbow.uk, @404Waffles and @HKG Superstore.
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