Jho Shinwoo(middle) and two staff members of the restaurant Photo：Jin Yingying
Dishes of the restaurant
By Jin Yingying
In the winter of 2024, Jho Shinwoo stepped off the plane at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, dragging his suitcase through the terminal. With a deep breath, he looked around. “Ah, I’m home,” he murmured to himself.
This moment of quiet reflection belongs to a man in his 63rd year, who spent the first four decades of his life in South Korea before making Hangzhou his home for the next 23 years. Over time, the air in Hangzhou has become more familiar to him than the streets of Seoul, a testament to how deeply this city has rooted itself in his life.
Jho’s first trip to Hangzhou came in 1998. At that time, he was simply a tourist, visiting the city to take in its beauty and culture. He stayed at a hotel near the West Lake, and spent a morning walking along the water, enjoying the serenity of the lake and the surrounding mist over the iconic Broken Bridge.
“It was my first time feeling the unique charm of Hangzhou,” Jho recalls. “The city has a rich historical depth, but also a warmth and vibrancy that make it feel alive and welcoming.”
In the early 2000s, Jho decided to send his children abroad for their education. After considering options in Canada, the United States, and Japan, he ultimately chose Hangzhou, drawn by the city’s beautiful environment and high-quality education system. “It’s a great place for children to grow up,” he said.
In 2003, Jho moved to Hangzhou with his wife and children, marking the start of a new chapter in his life. Initially, he ran a successful business exporting electronic screens to countries around the world. However, when the global financial crisis hit in 2008, his business took a severe blow, forcing him to close his factory and seek new opportunities.
Determined to turn his life around, Jho returned to South Korea, where he spent ten months learning traditional Korean cuisine and temple food. By 2013, he was ready for his next venture. He took over a small Korean restaurant, “Cheongseokgol (青石谷)”, located near Zhejiang University’s Yuquan campus, beginning what would become a deep and lasting connection with Hangzhou.
The restaurant quickly became a beloved spot for Korean people living in Hangzhou. Chung Hodong, a Korean student who came to Zhejiang University in 2015 to study Chinese discovered the restaurant by chance and became a regular. “Whenever I miss home, I come here to eat,” he says.
For many locals in Hangzhou, it became a local gem, where dishes like marinated crab, kimchi, fried chicken, and beef hot pot became staples of the menu. Each dish reflects Jho’s dedication to authentic Korean cooking and his mission to share his culture through food.
Over the years, Jho’s family has become an integral part of the Hangzhou community. His eldest son, Jho Deokhyeong, arrived in Hangzhou in middle school and went on to graduate from Zhejiang University. His command of the Hangzhou dialect is so good that his friends joke that he speaks “Hangzhou Mandarin” instead of regular Mandarin.
During the pandemic, Jho Deokhyeong volunteered in his local community, earning a reputation as a “helpful young man”. This touching story also led to Hangzhoufeel’s first visit to the restaurant in 2020.
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic early in 2020, Jho Deokhyeong was reported in both Chinese and Korean media for his contributions to the local community. At that time, he returned to South Korea with his pregnant wife and went back to Hangzhou with half a suitcase full of medical face masks and donated them to the local community. He and his father also cooked for community workers during the quarantine.
When talking about his connections to Hangzhou, what he said was similar to many Hangzhou locals. “We never went to the West Lake during holidays because of the crowds and traffic, but all my memory pieces of Hangzhou are related to the lake,” said Jho Deokhyeong.
“Most of my friends are in Hangzhou. I consider it my home, and South Korea my hometown,” he added. Although he is now in South Korea caring for his children, he hopes to return to Hangzhou someday.
Jho Shinwoo’s wife, who has spent many years in Hangzhou, went to Jeju Island to care for her daughter, who had just become a new mother. Jho stayed behind in Hangzhou to run the restaurant. “The people in Hangzhou are incredibly kind and warm,” he says. “They’ve made me feel like part of this community.”
In 2023, Jho moved his restaurant to a new location in Sanshen Square together with several long-time employees. Li, who has been with the restaurant for over a decade, recalls how Jho continued to pay wages even during the most difficult months of the pandemic, cementing his reputation as an honest and reliable employer.
As Jho looks toward the future, he is hopeful for continued success in his business. By 2025, he expects that the restaurant will continue to thrive, offering delicious food to satisfied customers and providing a steady income for his employees.
“I’ve now spent more time in Hangzhou than I did in South Korea after the age of 20,” Jho said. “And I finally realized that Hangzhou is my home.” For him, Hangzhou has become a place where he has found both his livelihood and his heart.