In the bustling atmosphere of haggling at Beijing’s Hongqiao Market, the Arabic words ahlan (welcome) and shukran (thank you) can be heard interspersed amongst the lively bargaining.
Hongqiao Market is a traditional shopping hub frequently visited by foreign tourists in Beijing. Before the pandemic, most foreign shoppers were from Europe and the US, with fewer Middle Eastern customers. Almost none of the vendors could speak Arabic.
As China eased its visa policies to boost domestic consumption in response to US tariffs, more buyers from the Middle East began arriving. Consequently, English mixed with Arabic or Persian has slowly become the standard language combination for Hongqiao merchants hoping to draw Middle Eastern customers.
Noticeable increase in Arab customers
On the first floor of Hongqiao Market, Shi, a sales assistant specialising in bags, picked up some Arabic phrases in the process of bargaining prices with Middle Eastern customers.
She told Lianhe Zaobao that there has been a noticeable increase in Arab customers in the past two years. Though most are able to communicate in English, “if you can say a few words in their language, you quickly become friends and they become repeat customers”.
Arabic has become a business strategy for Chinese merchants to attract Middle Eastern clients amid the China-US trade war. In Yiwu, Zhejiang, known as the “world’s supermarket” and a hub for Middle Eastern traders, Arabic has become essential learning for merchants to counteract the impact of the trade war.
According to Chinese media reports, Yiwu International Trade City organised its first free Arabic language training in March this year. Every morning, hundreds of merchants eager to do business with the Middle East gathered at a practice spot before opening their shops to learn trade-related Arabic phrases from a teacher. This same foreign language practice spot has provided English training for merchants since it was set up 19 years ago.
Irwin Education is one of the larger language training institutions locally in Yiwu. Yuan Yuan, who heads the training admissions department, noted that there were many Middle Eastern traders in Yiwu, and the demand for Arabic courses has always been high. The institution offers Arabic classes six days a week, attracting students across various industries, including salespersons, factory workers and retail assistants.
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