In 2003 Baghdad amid war, two Shenzhen youths defied fleeing crowds to run a small eatery, offering warm meals to all and becoming a rare cozy shelter.
In 2003, the entire country of Iraq was under fire. At that time, two young men from Shenzhen who had traveled to the Middle East to engage in cross-border trade in electronic components had just completed a shipment at the Jordanian border when they learned that local Chinese and foreign expatriates in Baghdad were evacuating en masse toward the border. The streets were filled with people clutching their passports,fleeing toward the border as if their feet couldn’t touch the ground, terrified that staying even a second longer would mean never seeing their loved ones again. Yet the two men went against the tide of refugees, heading straight into downtown Baghdad, where the shelling had not yet ceased.
People
fleeing the area shouted at the top of their lungs, warning the two that they were risking their lives. No one could understand why these two young men, who already had stable small businesses in Shenzhen, would give up their comfortable lives to open a Chinese restaurant in turbulent Baghdad.
At that time, the walls of buildings lining the streets of downtown Baghdad were riddled with bullet holes of varying depths, and the gunfire never ceased after dark; no one could predict which street corner the next stray bullet would strike.
Later, Zheng Hao, a Phoenix TV correspondent stationed in the Middle East, made his way along the bullet-riddled walls until he finally found the small restaurant the two had opened.The moment he pushed open the door, a wave of warm air washed over him; the smell of gunpowder from outside was completely shut out, and the aroma of home-cooked meals wafted through the shop.
No one could have imagined that this small shop—barely ten or so square meters in size, with dust from outside clinging to the baseboards—would become a rare haven of stability amid the chaos.The customers who came in were from all walks of life: local elders in headscarves, overseas Chinese traveling with backpacks, and foreign soldiers in camouflage uniforms. No matter who walked through the door, the two treated everyone equally—adjusting the seasoning to be milder for those who couldn’t handle spice, or scooping an extra spoonful of hot soup for those in a hurry.During the day, they served regular meals; at night, they set up a simple counter to run a small bar. They ran the place with genuine sincerity, without any gimmicks whatsoever.
Thanks to this genuine, unadulterated sincerity, this small eatery in the midst of war soon became so popular that it was hard to get a seat; after just over a year in business, its revenue had reached nearly 3.08 million.Others said the couple was just lucky, but only the regulars knew the truth: it wasn’t luck at all—it was those bowls of hot soup and rice that truly warmed the hearts of travelers on the road.
Later, the blockbuster film *Welcome to Long’s Restaurant* brought this story to the big screen. While the characters were adapted and the film incorporated other stories of Chinese immigrants’ struggles abroad, the one thing that remained unchanged was that tenacity—the resolve to stay true to one’s convictions even in the midst of chaos.
These two young men weren’t some powerful figures with extraordinary abilities—they were just ordinary young people from Shenzhen. At a time when everyone else was scrambling to flee, they warmed the hearts of so many strangers with nothing more than a simple meal and a side dish.
This kind of strength, rooted in the everyday realities of life, is never a legend—it’s simply ordinary people staying true to their conscience and doing their work with integrity, which is what moves us most. No matter what hardships we face in the days
ahead, if we think back to that warm restaurant in the midst of chaos and stay true to our hearts, there will be no obstacle we cannot overcome.
