[Commentary] The person in the picture is named Chen Mini. In 2010, she came to Guangxi to study in Guangxi from Thailand.

After completing the undergraduate and graduate studies, I chose to stay in Nanning to live.

Chen Mini has worked as a translator and secretary. During her work, she found that many Chinese people have a strong interest in Thai culture. So in 2020, she decided to start a business with friends and open a Thai restaurant.

  [Explanation] Recently, when the reporter met Chen Mini in the restaurant, she was busy preparing the ingredients for the evening business.

She told reporters that when she first came to Nanning, there were very few Thai restaurants and it was very difficult to eat Thai food.

Now with the increase of Sino-Thai exchanges, Thai restaurants have become ubiquitous.

  [Concurrent] Chen Mini

  There are more and more Thai restaurants now, and the development is getting better and better, from the (previous) one and two, now it has more than one hundred.

  [Explanation] During the ten years in Nanning, Chen Mini witnessed the change of Thai food from "hard to find" to popular.

She also witnessed the changes in the tastes of Nanning citizens, which she deeply felt.

  [Concurrent] Chen Mini

  (Previously) There are many more customers who can accept the taste of Thai food.

For example, three to five of ten people may not be able to eat Thai food before, but now there may be one.

  [Explanation] Chen Mini said frankly that the original intention of opening the restaurant was that when Thai friends who stayed in Nanning came to eat, it was like returning home.

Now, she hopes to build a "bridge" for the friendship between China and Thailand through food.

  [Concurrent] Chen Mini

  Opening this restaurant is not only to promote our Thai cuisine, but also to let them (customers) understand our Thai culture.

  [Explanation] In recent years, as the cooperation between China and ASEAN has deepened, ASEAN-flavored restaurants have blossomed everywhere, opening the Chinese market and "harvesting" the love of food lovers.

  [Explanation] 2020 is the 10th anniversary of the completion of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

With the deepening of bilateral cooperation, more and more people from ASEAN countries choose to study, start a business and live in China.

It is understood that Guangxi colleges and universities have established cooperative relations with nearly 200 colleges and universities in ASEAN countries, and Guangxi has become one of the provinces in China that recruits more students from ASEAN countries.

A large number of personnel exchanges have made Nanning a distribution center for the cuisine of ASEAN countries.

  Chu Weiwei and Chen Yanyou report from Nanning, Guangxi

Editor in charge: 【Qi Bin】