Ice cream machine bridges friendship between Taizhou, Kazakhstan

Chen Lin met with Bahadar at Khorgos Port in Xinjiang. [Photo/Taizhou Daily]

A touching reunion took place at Khorgos Port in Xinjiang on Sept 10. Bahadar from Almaty, Kazakhstan, once again met with Chen Lin from Taizhou, Jiangsu province — the man who supported her education more than a decade ago when he was an official in Xinjiang.

This time, Chen brought a special gift across thousands of kilometers: a tri-flavor ice cream machine made in Taizhou. The gift not only symbolized personal friendship but also embodied the deepening ties between Taizhou and Kazakhstan.

The story began in 2013, when Chen, then deputy Party secretary of Zhaosu county, Xinjiang, visited Almaty for a trade fair. There, he encountered a local couple selling fruit ice cream using a Xuemei-brand ice cream machine — a product once made by the Taizhou Commercial Machinery Factory, where Chen had served as deputy director in the 1980s.

The couple said the Chinese-made machine had brought them a better life, but after nearly two decades of use, its worn-out parts were irreplaceable. Chen promised to send them new belts after returning to China, but contact information was never exchanged.

Years later, during a 2019 cycling event from Taizhou to Nur-Sultan, Chen tried again to find the Kazakh ice cream vendor by sending the long-kept belts with the cyclists. The story gained local media attention, yet the search ended without success.

In 2025, several Taizhou ice cream machine manufacturers, moved by Chen's story, decided to donate a new ice cream machine to Almaty. When choosing a recipient, Chen immediately thought of Bahadar — the girl he had once helped through difficult times.

Bahadar was just 15 when Chen first met her in 2010. Her family was struggling to handle her brother's illness, and so Chen supported her education until she was admitted to Beijing Foreign Studies University, and later, Almaty University. Now married with two children, she works and lives in Kazakhstan.

At their border reunion, Chen handed her the new Taizhou-made ice cream machine — fulfilling a long-held wish. Bahadar said she plans to open an ice cream shop in Almaty and name it the China-Kazakhstan Friendship Dessert Station.