China and Ukraine played a joke.

Hello, I'm Shen Dianqi, a traveler who travels around the world and pays attention to Chinese people around the world.

The sixth stop in Ukraine, I am in Odessa.

An unannounced visit to the 7 km market in Odessa.

Speaking of "seven kilometers", almost all Chinese in Ukraine know that most of the more than 3,000 Chinese in Odessa work here.

Zhu Xiao took me to this market at 9 o'clock in the morning, because the market mainly opens in the morning and closes at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.

Seven kilometers is the largest commodity distribution center and wholesale market in Europe. At the peak, the number of people in China reached 6.5438+0 million. In addition to Chinese, there are various faces on the market, which are found all over the world.

Zhu Xiao took me to this market and visited an old man from the China Chamber of Commerce. Everyone calls him "silly brother". He came to Ukraine on 1993. I will write some stories about him in the future.

Have a bird's eye view of the "seven kilometers" market.

The whole market is made of containers, some of which have two floors, one is bunk and the other is warehouse.

Due to the mixed market, the radio in the market block repeatedly broadcasts warning words such as "beware of being deceived and beware of pyramid schemes" in Russian. Enough to see how complicated this market is.

When I raised my camera, I met many shopkeepers on the road. They were very alert and asked me what I was doing ... Later, I learned that there was a sphere of influence in the local area, and many people in the market might have criminal records ... In short, in this complex environment, people are highly alert to the outside world, and I understand.

So, I chose the way of unannounced visits. I set the camera to be hidden. Then, I went to the Afghan neighborhood, where there are a large number of Afghan refugees (it is very convenient for them to enter Ukraine directly with refugee cards). There are more and more Afghan refugees in Ukraine.

Vietnamese rice noodles in the seven-kilometer market

Besides China people, there are a large number of Vietnamese in the 7 km market, so there are authentic Vietnamese rice noodles here. At noon, I ate a Vietnamese rice noodle shop. It was delicious, the soup was fresh and the amount of beef was large. The correct operation is to pour the Chili sauce into the dipping dish and dip the beef slices in the Chili sauce.

Beef is tender, fat and thin, and delicious. A bowl of beef powder is 80 gerry, equivalent to RMB 20 yuan. When he returned to school in Ukraine, Zhu Xiao missed Asian food. He would take a bus from downtown to the market 7 kilometers away to eat a bowl of powder.

The owner of the restaurant is very enthusiastic. On the first floor of the store is a small supermarket, which sells some Vietnamese food seasonings and the like.

Seven kilometers market, 29-year-old China "silly brother"

Zhu Xiao went to the market a few kilometers away and helped me find a local big brother in China. Zhu Xiao said that silly brother is very kind, and local students will ask him for help if they need to go through any formalities. People are very enthusiastic.

Silly brother has been in Ukraine for 28 years from 1993. At first, he went to study in a small Ukrainian city along the Dnieper River, and later he has been rooted in Ukraine.

He experienced the Great Depression after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He recalled the first time he came to Ukraine. The shelves of shopping malls, shops and supermarkets are empty and nothing can be bought.

But at that time, money was easy to earn because there were many opportunities. Silly brother said that the mechanical pencil they brought from China at that time, Ukrainians were particularly novel and had never seen it. At that time, Ukraine can be said to have no light industrial products.

1995 or so, the goods gradually came in, and this situation has been improved.

However, after decades of development, Ukraine's national strength has been "steadily declining", which is a very helpless and not too stinging feeling, just like boiling a frog in warm water, with a little economic decline.

An unannounced visit to Afghanistan for seven kilometers

Because this market is mixed with fish and dragons, I chose covert shooting. The following are the precious humanities and social sciences materials that I recorded in a secret way.

Old local Chinese told me that the number of Afghans here even exceeds that of Indians and Arabs, and it is still increasing. A very important reason is that it is much more convenient for Afghans to come in as refugees than in other ways.

For example, it is the most difficult for Vietnamese to get Ukrainian customs cards. Many Vietnamese came from the old Soviet era, and some new Vietnamese came in through "buying customs". It is difficult for most Vietnamese to enter Ukraine.

Afghans, on the other hand, because they are war countries, directly issued a "refugee card" in accordance with international regulations and directly came in.

This is very close to the pattern of Afghan refugees in Australia, that is, China has to spend money to buy language skills and immigrants have to queue up. But when Afghans arrive in Australia, they are given money as soon as they get off the plane, and the crime rate is extremely high. ...

Many msl countries quickly immigrate to pagan countries through high birth rate, chaotic resources and population overflow, and these methods have successfully spread, which is indeed a successful model.

Six races in the seven-kilometer market

Silly brother introduced us to the basic situation of this market, which is found all over the world, including Cambodians …

The main population is divided into six categories: 1, China, 2, Viet Nam, 3, India, 4, Afghanistan, 5, Middle East (Syrian, Iranian) 6 and Ukraine.

These six groups of people control different industries:

1, China people are mainly shoes and bags department stores;

2. Vietnamese mainly resell goods from China, as well as remittance and foreign exchange business;

3. Indians control small household appliances;

4. There are many Afghans, and they are also sold in China;

5. Middle Easterners control textiles and cloth carpets;

6. Ukrainians do everything, mainly retail, or help the top five to work and look after shops;

We and the Ukrainian flag

Passing through a large sunflower seed field, I suddenly thought of yellow with blue, and the Ukrainian flag is basically like this.

Ukrainian flag (Ukrainian: деравникпрапорукра? ни) The flag surface consists of two parallel and equal horizontal rectangles: upper blue and lower yellow. Blue represents the sky and the sea, symbolizing freedom and sovereignty. Yellow stands for wheat fields, symbolizing Ukraine's founding with agriculture.

Odessa 160 ethnic group

Odessa is the dirtiest city (mainly the main city) I have ever seen in Ukraine. Compared with other cities in Ukraine, it is very clean here, so the urban area of Odessa is particularly dirty.

I put two photos below, this is the center of Odessa, and my place is the most chaotic. There will be beggars and vagrants in the streets, much more than in other cities in Ukraine.

I think one of the reasons is that Odessa is the warmest place in Ukraine, and homeless people living in the wind will be more adapted to some of the climate here.

Later, local Chinese told me that Odessa has more than 160 ethnic groups. I said it's really not like a Slavic city, because most Slavic cities I've been to are extremely clean.

Later, when I think about it carefully, there are not many Orthodox churches in Odessa these days, but more Catholic churches, as well as various Protestant churches and mosques ... Jews can often be seen in the streets.

The nationalities that Odessa can clearly identify with the naked eye are: Ukrainians, Jews, Turks, Arabs, China, Vietnamese, blacks,

There are Azerbaijanis, Ecuadoreans in South America and Stan in Central Asia.

In the 7 km market, there are Afghans, Iranians, Syrians and Indians. ...

The immigrants left by the Soviet Union are Armenia and Georgia. ...

Immigrants formed by the history and trade of Black Sea ports: Greeks and Arabs. ...

Back to the last article, the population structure is so complicated, Odessa is more diverse and of course dirtier.

Tomorrow I will start a new journey from Odessa to Lviv.

See you next time.