After meeting Ye Xiaorong, I understood that a new kind of Chinatown is emerging, and the Belt and Road Initiative is giving his dream a timely nudge in the right direction.

In many Chinatowns across Europe, restaurants, groceries, traditional medicine clinics and tourist agencies stand next to each other on streets built by local governments specifically for Chinese businesspeople to rent.

"I like markets, where we can bargain. I like bargaining," said the 41-year-old native of Qingtian county, Zhejiang province, who now lives in Budapest.