A Chinese hotpot restaurant on Pracha Rat Bamphen Road in Bangkok.
Photographer: Athikhom Saengchai for Bloomberg BusinessweekA Million Chinese Expats Are Transforming Far-Flung Places
A street in Bangkok, a coastal city in Japan and rural Vietnam—all are changing with the arrival of a post-pandemic migration wave.
Feng shui practitioners say the middle section of Bangkok’s Pracha Rat Bamphen Road resembles the belly of a dragon. That makes it an auspicious place: Live or run a business here, and you have a good chance of prospering.
So when a wave of Chinese entrepreneurs started arriving after the height of the pandemic, property was in hot demand. For some locals it was the opportunity of a lifetime to sell or lease their homes, which often have ground-floor commercial space. Long-term resident Chanaphon Rittayamai, 52, saw his neighbor’s place go for 15 million baht ($420,000)—50% more than expected. Chanaphon has refused multiple offers for his own store. “I told them no because this property is an inheritance from my parents, and I can’t lease it to anyone,” he says. “I saw it rise from a dirt road.”