A love story from Chinatown

Mario & Gabriela

London is famous and beloved by people for being a meeting point for different cultures, this mixture often leads to the making of relationships and emotional bonds between people from different cultures and countries. The city is big and these relationships can start from the most disparate places and boroughs, today's story started in one of London's most picturesque boroughs, Chinatown.

Mario Lin is 30 years old, his family is Chinese but he grew up in Prato, Italy: "I moved here with my brother in 2017 because I always wanted to live in a multicultural city. Italy is getting better but it's fair to say that foreigners are still looked at in a certain way there, I wanted to be free and when I came here I started working in a restaurant in Chinatown, it's there that I met Gabriela".

Mario and his girlfriend Gabriela have been together for 5 years, they live in Twickenham and have big plans for the future. Gabriela Ferreira, 27, is Brazilian, she is currently doing her masters and met Mario while visiting his restaurant in Chinatown:"I was in Chinatown with my Italian room mate, we stopped to eat at this Chinese restaurant where Mario was a waiter, it struck me that Mario being Chinese was fluent in Italian, we started talking and something clicked, we ended up exchanging contacts and here we are 5 years later".

Mario and Gabriela's bond is very strong but they also had to face tough moments during their story.

"Initially my family was against our relationship, they always wanted me to marry a Chinese girl but when they met Gabriela they saw that she was a very smart, loving and hardworking person" says Mario.

"Although our countries are far from each other, I found many things in common between our cultures, even some foods are similar, the fact that Mario is Italian helped a lot In constructing this cultural bridge" says Gabriela.

Mario and Gabriela are planning to get married, their story is common with many other Londoners, but that's the beauty of this city, bringing together people from every corner of the world.