Meet Chino Joe – the Chinese/Belizean/Salvadoran who first opened shop in Belize then moved to El Salvador
By Breaking Belize News Staff: Meet Chino Joe, the Chinese businessman who owned a restaurant on Freetown in Belize then moved to El Salvador where he now owns a chain of family-run restaurants. He first came to Belize from China in 1979 where he ran his restaurant at the corner of Freetown Road and Douglas […] The post Meet Chino Joe – the Chinese/Belizean/Salvadoran who first opened shop in Belize then moved to El Salvador appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
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By Breaking Belize News Staff: Meet Chino Joe, the Chinese businessman who owned a restaurant on Freetown in Belize then moved to El Salvador where he now owns a chain of family-run restaurants. He first came to Belize from China in 1979 where he ran his restaurant at the corner of Freetown Road and Douglas Jones Street before marrying a Salvadoran woman, then moving to El Salvador in 1986; where he has resided ever since.
Joe Cheng, a cousin of Lee Mark Chang from the village of Chong Saan in China, first settled in Belize City in 1979 and started his restaurant called Joe’s Chinese Restaurant, where he sold local favorites such as fried chicken. He later married a Salvadoran woman and then made the move to El Salvador, where has lived for the last 40 years. He moved to El Salvador at the height of the Salvadoran civil war, which ended in 1992. Following the war, El Salvador fell victim to the proliferation of gangs, with the MS-13 taking control of much of the country’s territory, and plaguing citizens and businesses alike. Joe says he himself was a victim of extortion by the gangs and had to pay a monthly fee of USD $200 or he would be killed.
These days, however, the gang members are all locked up, and Joe says his business is able to operate freely. Joe credits the current Salvadoran government for liberating not only his business, but all Salvadorans. He boasts that El Salvador is now the safest country in all of Central America, and more than that, he encourages all Belizeans to visit. He says Belizeans should visit because the country is now open for tourism and the cost of living is very cheap, especially in comparison to Belize.
In addition to eliminating the influence of gangs in El Salvador, the country now had free education and healthcare. Joe says he still visits Belize frequently but says while the last 10 years has seen El Salvador grow and advance in many ways; based on what he has seen on his visits to his former home, Belize is pretty much still the same.
He credits El Salvador’s development to strong political will and says that both mass parties in Belize, leave much to be desired.
Joe says he is happy in El Salvador, where he runs a chain of restaurants called Chino Joe with his children, two of whom are born Belizeans, and one of whom frequently travels to and visits Belize.
The post Meet Chino Joe – the Chinese/Belizean/Salvadoran who first opened shop in Belize then moved to El Salvador appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
