SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Last October, Jenny Qu came to Yellowknife and saw an opportunity.
New business owner Jenny Qu stands in the front entrance of her Aurora Yellowknife Bed & Breakfast on 52nd Avenue. Qu's first bed and breakfast was in Shenzhen, China. - Karen K. Ho/NNSL photo |
After being punted around various other hotels and bed and breakfasts around town due to a shortage of rooms, the former marketing manager knew the city was in desperate need of another place for tourists to stay.
So the 45-year-old opened the Aurora Yellowknife Bed and Breakfast on 52 Avenue in March.
Luckily, this wasn't her first experience in business and being an entrepreneur. Prior to her move here, Jenny spent 10 years in Shenzhen, China (population 10.6 million) as a marketing manager. For four of those years, Jenny also operated a bed and breakfast in an extra apartment she had owned.
But after that visit to Yellowknife last fall and her experience living in Saskatoon for a few months, she decided she wanted to live in a quiet, smaller city instead of the bustling Shenzhen. Being from the coastal northern Chinese city of Tianjin (population 14.7 million), Yellowknife's cold winter temperatures didn't bother her either.
After borrowing some money from her family and spending six months in Saskatoon, Jenny bought the grey, two-floor house with the grand, rock-filled backyard and moved to the city with her teenage son in January. The cost was $600,000.
The downtown location came from her research and a negative experience trekking in from Old Town during the winter.
"Chinese tourists like shopping and to find a Chinese restaurant," she added.
However, according to Jenny the Chinese restaurants in the city only offer southern dishes, and so she had to go to Edmonton to buy many of the spices and other cooking supplies not available here.
She spent weeks on renovations, including soundproofing the walls, purchasing new beds, changing the lights and installing smoke alarms in every room. Jenny estimated she spent $50,000 and still has plans to do more.
Now Jenny and her sister Shirley live on the spacious top floor while renting out bedrooms on the bottom floor for $90 to $120 per night, depending on the size of the room and the time of year. Guests can pick from Chinese or traditional breakfasts as well as use the shared kitchen to cook their own meals.
Currently, a group of scientists have reserved the guest rooms for three weeks.
Jenny said a typical booking at her bed and breakfast is five to seven days, with many of her clients coming from mainland China through recommendations from previous guests and an independent travel agency that books directly with her.
While clients come from other parts of Canada, the United States and Japan, all the signs are in English and traditional Chinese characters.
Jenny said she's observed that many Chinese travellers want to travel to Yellowknife independently but don't speak English very well. "I think there should be more tour guides who speak Mandarin," she said.
Costs for her furnace and hot water tank were also definitely higher than expected.
As for the future, Jenny plans on renovating the expansive deck in the backyard, making her beef and pork dumplings for the weekly Yellowknife Farmers Market as well as learning more about the city's culture so she can better explain it to her guests.
"I want to live here for a long time," she said.
