The number of Chinese people in Serbia according to 2011 census is 1,373.
The community resides mainly in
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...
's capital,
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...
. Most have their origin in two provinces south of the
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
region.
None of the Chinese have
Serbian citizenship.
The Chinese immigration to Serbia was prompted after former
Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
and his wife
Mira Marković visited
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
in 1997. There were 30 Chinese people living in Serbia in August 1998.
/ref> There was a rumor that Milosevic imported over 50,000 Chinese people and gave them Yugoslavia, Yugoslav passports
A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...
so that they could vote for him in elections. Other rumors say that the Chinese arrived here in order to take language courses
Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language education: ...
. The newspaper, Večernje novosti, says one part of town in particular has had a complete Chinese village transplanted into it: "The entire population of the Chinese village of Jincun, Kaihua County
Kaihua County () is a county under the jurisdiction of Quzhou city in Zhejiang Province of the People's Republic of China. It is located in the westernmost portion of Zhejiang, and is the source of the Qiantang River. The district's total area is ...
in Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...
province has moved to Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...
, specifically to Blok 70 where they have businesses in the local center (''Kineski centar'', "Chinese center") in the suburb of Novi Beograd
New Belgrade ( sr, / , ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. It is a planned city, built since 1948 in a previously uninhabited area on the left bank of the Sava river, opposite old Belgrade. In recent years, it has become the central bu ...
."
The Chinese send their children to schools in China when they have reached age for primary school, to learn the Chinese language like natives, which is important for the community.[
Besides Belgrade (Blok 70), there is also a sizable Chinese community in the second largest Serbian city ]Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the P ...
, which has a Chinese trade center, as well as many Chinese shops and restaurants.
See also
* China-Serbia relations
References
External links
Little China in Belgrade
12 February 2001 -- BBC Monitoring
(in Serbian)
{{Ethnic groups in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...
Ethnic groups in Serbia