A group photo of Yang Yiying and his family members. [Photo provided to ezhejiang.gov.cn]
Yang Yiying's father, Yang Shixu, was born in Ruian, a county-level city administered by Wenzhou, in East China's Zhejiang province, in the late 19th century. In the 1930s, he went abroad to make a living in Japan and then traveled around Europe.
In 1960 Yang Yiying also went abroad to start a business. In 1963, he opened the Shanghai Restaurant in Bonn, Germany and later went to the Netherlands to operate in the real estate industry. In 1976, his family and friends went abroad one after another to operate in catering industry in the cities of Bonn and Cologne in Germany.
Yang Yiying now has two sons, a daughter, 12 grandchildren and dozens of great-grandchildren, who are all abroad. Yang Weizhong, his eldest son, was once the executive chairman of the German Chinese Association.
