Hidden on the outskirts of the city, Central Europe's biggest Chinatown contains more than a dozen true-to-China restaurants. With more than 30, people, Budapest is home to the biggest Chinese community in Central Europe. Chinese people settled here between and , a period with no visa requirements and abundant economic opportunities in post-Communist Hungary. Most Chinese immigrants were unskilled, hard-working people hailing from villages and small towns in Eastern China β mainly Zhejiang and Fujian provinces β looking for a better life in Europe.
They set up markets on Budapest's outskirts, selling low-priced imported Chinese goods, mostly clothing. Over time, some of them have done very well, but the majority is still toiling away as clothing vendors from dawn to dusk, seven days a week. At its peak, in the s, the Hungarian Chinese community amounted to almost 50, people, but many have since moved on to Western Europe or returned to their hometowns in China which had been drastically transformed in the meantime.
Recently, a new wave of Chinese immigrants moved to Budapest: between and , thousands of Chinese citizens purchased Hungarian residency bonds through an immigration-by-investment program run by the Hungarian government. Instead of settling in working-class neighborhoods, many bought homes in the Buda hills and other elite pockets of the city. The recently opened Chinese restaurants in Budapest, particularly the pricier ones, cater to these well-heeled newcomers.
In addition to the hundreds of clothing wholesalers, many places here serve the needs of the local community: traditional Chinese medical centers; churches; massage and hair salons; Chinese-language newspaper publishers, tea and coffee shops , and Hungary's biggest Chinese supermarket, Dunapanda.
And plenty of Chinese restaurants. In fact, Monori Center is where Budapest's top Chinese restaurants cluster. Be it a modest dumpling takeout , a neighborhood restaurant , an upscale Sichuan place, or seafood , you'll find them all here. Since the majority of customers comprise Chinese people, the dishes aren't adjusted to Hungarian tastes and are comparable to those found in China β there's even a local Chinese farmer outside Budapest who grows Chinese vegetables in a greenhouse.
