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On the approach to Li’ao village, it looks like any rural hamlet in this part of eastern coastal China. Ramshackle houses are nestled into steep hills and a graceful Chinese temple topped with dragons, phoenixes and curling gables adorns its main street.
走近丽岙镇，它看起来和中国东部沿海地区的其他乡村小镇没什么两样。摇摇欲坠的房屋坐落在陡峭的山坡上，镇里的主要街道上伫立着一座雅致的中国寺庙，屋顶上有龙和凤的雕塑，以及弧线形的山墙。
But in the spot where you would expect the local tea merchant is a building with a sign completely alien in contemporary rural China: “I Dream of Paris Café” it says, in both English and Chinese.
但在本该是当地茶馆的地方，却出现了一座对当代中国农村来说完全陌生的咖啡馆。这家咖啡馆的中文名称是“梦·巴黎咖啡休闲会所”（英文名：Dream of Paris Café club）。
Down the street is the Prato Café. Then the Venice restaurant. More than a dozen other European-style cafés, restaurants and red wine merchants thrive in this village of 20,000 that has a long tradition of exporting labourers and semi-skilled workers to the factories of Italy and the slums and Chinatowns of Paris or Madrid.
沿着街道往下走是普拉托咖啡馆，然后是威尼斯茶餐厅。镇上还有其他十几家生意火爆的欧式咖啡馆、餐厅和红酒坊。这个拥有两万人口的小镇有着向意大利工厂、向巴黎或马德里贫民窟和唐人街输送劳动力和半熟练工人的悠久传统。
Li’ao is known throughout the Wenzhou area as “Europe village”. Every household can name family members living in Italy or Spain or Portugal – and their risk-taking has improved the fortunes of the next generation. In most of tea-drinking China, coffee is as foreign as cheese and baguettes. In this village, locals claim to serve the best coffee in the country, along with all kinds of delicacies imported directly from Europe.
丽岙是温州地区有名的“欧洲村”。几乎家家户户都有人居住在意大利、西班牙或葡萄牙——他们的冒险精神令下一代的命运改观。在中国大多数有喝茶习惯的地区，咖啡就像奶酪和法式长棍面包一样是外来品。但在这个小镇里，当地人声称他们能提供国内最好的咖啡，以及各种从欧洲直接进口的美味佳肴。
Lin Aizhu, 41, is the pretty and stylishly-dressed owner of Prato Café and introduces herself in fluent Italian as “Linda”. She describes an experience typical for many of the people from her village. Her decision to move abroad was rooted in youthful drive and a pact between her and her husband to seek a better life.
现年41岁的林爱珠（音译）是一位穿着时髦的漂亮女士，也是普拉托咖啡馆的老板。她用流利的意大利语自我介绍说她叫“琳达”。她称自己的经历和镇里许多人类似。她移居国外的决定源于年轻时的冲动，也是她和丈夫为了向往更美好的生活而作出的一个约定。
Her return sheds light on a new dimension of the China-Europe relationship that is not often appreciated by Europeans, who mostly see a one-way flow of new Chinese migrants. The Financial Times this week examined China’s expansion in some of the hardest hit eurozone countries – part of a national effort to find new markets and enhance economic growth – as well as the ambitions of Chinese businesses and migrants who sought fresh opportunities.
林爱珠回到家乡展示了中欧关系的一个新层面——欧洲人往往不会注意到这个发展，他们大多只看到中国移民涌入欧洲的一面。英国《金融时报》系列报道关注中国在那些遭受危机最沉重打击的欧元区国家的扩张——这是中国发现新市场和增强经济实力的努力的一部分——以及中国企业和移民寻求新机遇的雄心。
In the early 1990s, when Linda had just completed high school and was still a teenager, she and her husband borrowed more than Rmb300,000 (an astronomical sum at the time) from their relatives to pay people smugglers, known as “snakeheads”, to spirit them into Europe.
上世纪90年代初，林爱珠高中毕业后，未满20岁的她和丈夫从亲戚那里借了30多万元人民币（这在当时是很大的一笔钱）付给“蛇头”，以偷渡去欧洲。
Her husband went first but he was caught by Russian border guards who beat him and sent him back, she said. It took him more than a year of trying and a long trek through the mountains of eastern Europe before he arrived in France.
她说，她的丈夫先出发，但被俄罗斯边防军抓获。边防军把他揍了一顿后送了回来。后来他花了一年多尝试偷渡，最后经过长途跋涉，穿过东欧山脉抵达法国。
Linda’s illegal trip was less eventful but fuelled by as much resolve. She travelled by train through Russia, Romania and then France, with a fake passport.
林爱珠的偷渡之旅没那么多变故，但同样展现出坚定意志。她用假护照坐上火车，穿过俄罗斯和罗马尼亚，最后到了法国。
With no skills, no language beyond her own local dialect and no residency papers, she worked in a sweatshop in Paris. She barely had enough to eat, she said, and often worked 30 hours without a break.
由于没有技能、除了方言以外不懂其他语言，更没有移民身份，她只能在巴黎的一家“血汗工厂”干活。她说，当时自己几乎吃不饱饭，经常30个小时连续工作。
All of her five brothers and sisters emigrated to Europe that way, she said.
她表示，她的5个兄弟姐妹也都通过这种方法移居欧洲。
“Life was very bitter,” Linda says of her early years. “But we heard about an amnesty for illegal migrants in Italy and we eventually managed to get residence papers and start our own business making scarves, necklaces and watches in Prato. Life was much better after that.”
林爱珠在谈到自己早年的经历时说：“生活非常苦。不过后来我们听说意大利在大赦非法移民，于是我们最终在那里拿到了居留证，并开始自己做生意，在普拉托制作头巾、项链和手表。之后生活就好多了。”
Prato, a manufacturing hub for fashion in Italy’s Tuscany region, became a magnet for migrants from Wenzhou province. Today, it bustles with Chinese migrants still looking for that difficult first job – as well as educated Chinese now attending Italian universities.
普拉托是意大利托斯卡纳地区(Tuscany)的一个时尚产品制造中心，那里已经成为吸引温州移民的聚集地。如今，普拉托依然挤满了仍在苦苦寻觅首份工作的中国移民，以及受过良好教育、正在意大利读大学的中国人。
The Wenzhou government does not keep accurate migration statistics but Xu Jie, deputy director for Wenzhou’s Overseas Chinese Administrative Office, estimates that 500,000 Wenzhou natives live overseas, most in Europe. Such a diaspora has been a boon to the local economy, she said.
温州市政府没有准确的移民统计数据，但温州市侨办副主任许捷估计，约有50万温州人生活在海外，其中大部分人在欧洲。她说，这些温州移民促进了当地经济的发展。
“Around 80 per cent of foreign investment to Wenzhou actually comes from Chinese living overseas,” Ms Xu says. “Particularly since the 2008 financial crisis we have seen many emigrants returning to Wenzhou. These days it seems it is easier to make money here than over there.”
许捷说：“温州吸引的海外投资实际上有80%左右来自海外华人。尤其是自2008年金融危机以来，我们看到很多海外华人返回温州。现在在国内似乎比在国外更容易赚钱。”
The days of paying exorbitant fees to people-smuggling snakeheads are pretty much gone as well, because both Chinese and foreign restrictions have eased. When Linda and her family left China it was virtually impossible for ordinary Chinese to get a passport.
向蛇头支付高额费用以偷渡出国的日子在很大程度上也已成往事，因为无论是中国还是外国都已经放松了旅行限制。当年林爱珠及其家人离开中国的时候，普通中国人几乎不可能获得护照。
Nowadays, nearly anyone in China can get a passport. Chinese tourists are the world’s biggest spenders and European governments are scrambling to make visa procedures easier. Chinese who long for home can move with relative ease, choosing between two familiar worlds.
现在，几乎每一个中国人都能获得护照。中国人是全球花钱最多的游客，欧洲各国政府竭力简化签证流程。想念家乡的中国人可以相对轻松地来往于两个熟悉的世界。
Linda worked for 20 years in Prato. She returned to Li’ao this year to open her café and to help her children study for possible entry to university.
林爱珠在普拉托工作了20年。她今年回到丽岙开了自己的咖啡馆，并帮助孩子们准备考大学。
Her generation of unskilled workers feels economic opportunities are now better at home than in Europe, still unsteady from the 2008 financial crisis and the European debt crisis aftermath.
她们这一代没有技术的工人认为，现在国内的经济机会比欧洲更好。欧洲仍未走出2008年金融危机以及随后欧洲债务危机的阴影。
Linda and her husband were poor when they arrived in Europe. By the time they returned to China last year, they had saved enough to buy an apartment close to the Duomo in Prato and to set up a café in Li’ao.
她和丈夫在刚到欧洲的时候很穷，但到去年回国的时候，他们已经攒下了足够的钱，可以在普拉托大教堂附近买下一套公寓，并在丽岙开一家咖啡馆。
Linda said she and many contemporaries are being pulled home by a sense of belonging – even though her family now chooses to eat pizza and spaghetti every weekend.
林爱珠表示，她和许多同辈人之所以回国，是因为这里让他们有归属感——尽管她的家人现在每个周末都要吃比萨饼和意大利面。
“It’s true that in Europe the food is safe and the air is good, unlike back here,” says Linda. “But the Italians really discriminate against us, while back here it is now easier to make a fortune than it is over there.”
她说：“当然，与国内不一样的是，欧洲的食品更安全，空气也好。但意大利人真的很歧视我们，而现在回国赚钱比在那边更容易。”
