Hard-hit Chinatown welcomes customers
Peter Yip’s Regency Palace has been in Chinatown for almost 20 years.
As an employer of more than 50 people and as the biggest, independent Chinese restaurant in Calgary serving hundreds of customers each week, the flood hit hard — even though no water reached his business or the nearby parkade.
After a week without power, throwing out all the food on the premises and cleaning everything to make sure Regency met stringent health regulations, it’s back up and running at full speed with dim sum, full menu and lunch and dinner buffets.
“It has been very slow (for business) but Sunday was looking a lot better,” says Yip, Regency’s owner, from his 3rd Avenue Centre Street S. location.
Brian Wong, copresident of the Calgary Chinese Merchants Association, says while Chinatown was hit hard by the flood, the word needs to get out: the commercial sector is open for business.
“They are so eager to serve people once again; these are hardworking people with an entrepreneurial spirit.”
CCMA represents 150 business members in Calgary’s more than 100-year-old Chinatown.
All were affected by the flood — through direct overland flooding, or through power outages or sewer backup.
And while most are open, some are still struggling in the northeast part of Chinatown up to 2nd Avenue, where the impact of the flooding was severest.
“It is so big for these merchants to handle. No one has seen something like this,” says Wong.
“We have Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai…. Everything is there and most of them are open.”
There are also fashion outlets, travel agencies and many not-forprofit groups that provide services to the community.
At the Mah Society, operator of a community centre for seniors, basement operation was totally submerged, says secretary Grace Ma, adding it is still without power and also lost all its furniture and musical instruments.
The hardest thing is losing a meeting place for the community, she says.
But what all the merchants and service providers cite is the remarkable volunteer efforts of the community and beyond, in helping Chinatown recover.
“I had tears in my eyes at how much this community came together itself,” says Ma, who is also a n interpreter in the community, noting there were many volunteers who came out to help.
Annette Fung, general manager of the Silver Dragon restaurant, says once her iconic Chinatown business was up and running, it was able to provide lunch boxes for the volunteers helping the elderly residents of the community get back to their homes.
She says as the downtown workers return, so is her business.
Wong credits the agencies in Chinatown and the community itself that came together during the flood, and which will continue to do so as a city task force looks at how to help with further recovery.
“There was a tight connection in Chinatown in the first five days of the flood. We went from nothing to an ad hoc committee to hundreds of volunteers right away,” says Wong. “Chinatown came together to help. It was amazing.”
Everyone is invited to come support the area at the Chinatown Street Festival Aug. 10.
Visit calgarychinesemerchants.org or facebook.com/pages/ chinatown-calgary/ 180036042047248.