At around 4:30 am, while much of the city is still asleep, Lin Yu-chi, a baker from Tainan, Taiwan, begins his day alongside his wife, Tao Jiabao. Together, they run a small bakery in Wuhan, Hubei province. Over the years, Lin's life has come to revolve around flour and yeast.

At the bakery, Lin takes on the most physically demanding tasks: mixing, kneading and controlling fermentation. Tao prepares ingredients, manages orders and bakes. With no employees, the couple handles every step themselves, from flour to shelf, each task tightly linked, leaving little room for pause.

The rhythm now feels natural to Lin, though it was not what he had expected when he first arrived on the Chinese mainland in 2015.

Lin landed in Shanghai with only 900 yuan ($130.41) and many misconceptions shaped by media reports, imagining the mainland as underdeveloped and inconvenient. But his first impression quickly challenged those assumptions.

"The city was filled with skyscrapers, and mobile payments and ride-hailing services were incredibly convenient," he recalled.

Lin eventually chose to settle in Wuhan because of love. His relationship with Tao, a Wuhan native, gave him a reason to stay and build a life there.

The bakery began in a community garage. The first loaf they sold was a simple toast, and their earliest customers were neighbors. It was that support, Lin said, that gave him the confidence to carry on.

Later, Lin and Tao scraped together savings and borrowed money to move the business into a proper commercial storefront. In 2025, they opened their shop on Taibei Road.

For Lin, the location held a special familiarity. As someone from Taiwan, the street name — written with the same Chinese characters as Taipei — felt close to home. The surrounding neighborhood, where many Taiwan residents live, also had the kind of community atmosphere he wanted for the bakery.

That sense of familiarity also shaped what he baked. The shop's best-sellers include Taiwan-style crispy chicken and sausage bread, rice bread and shrimp roll bread made with ingredients brought from Taiwan.

Lin also tried to combine Taiwan flavors with local Wuhan tastes, but not every experiment succeeded. In one early attempt, he followed a popular trend and turned Wuhan's reganmian (hot dry noodles) and crayfish into bread. But the dough absorbed too much oil from the noodles, and the crayfish filling fell out of place.

Tao's local palate also helped guide him. She often encouraged Lin to tone down the sweetness he was used to.

After testing many versions with regular customers, Lin gradually found a more balanced approach, using Taiwan ingredients as a foundation while incorporating the salty, savory and mildly spicy flavors preferred by local tastes.

One standout success was his tomato, cumin and pineapple bread, paired with cuttlefish and shrimp cakes sourced from Taiwan — a combination that quickly became a favorite.

Yet for Lin, the most meaningful part of the day is not the business itself.

"The moment I look forward to most is running into familiar faces who stop by to chat," he said. "Seeing them bring their children in to buy bread, catching up on their lives, and feeling that sense of human connection — that is the warmest motivation that keeps me going every day."

Over the years, Lin has built lasting relationships with many of the people who walk through his bakery doors.

One longtime customer, a Wuhan local who has supported the bakery since its early days, still visits every week or two after its move to Taibei Road. When things get busy, she even helps with packing, sales and checkout.

Another story that stays with him is that of a woman who works in Kenya. Whenever she returns to China, she makes a special trip to the bakery and buys bread to have it shipped to Kenya via Guangzhou. She once told Lin that the familiar taste was her greatest comfort whenever she felt homesick.

Through his years in Wuhan, Lin has witnessed not only the development of the city's infrastructure and innovation capacity, but also its growing support for young entrepreneurs from Taiwan. He has also felt its cultural atmosphere become more open and welcoming.

"I have gone from being a stranger to feeling that this place is truly home," he said.

For Lin, that feeling extends beyond his own experience. Taiwan residents often visit his bakery, finding the taste of home in his bread while sharing stories of their own lives on the Chinese mainland. In those conversations, Lin sees a quiet sense of mutual support among people living far away from where they began.

He often thinks of Wuhan in the early morning: steaming bowls of hot dry noodles, people hurrying through the streets, ordinary scenes filled with purpose.

To young people from Taiwan considering opportunities on the mainland, Lin's message is simple. "Don't overthink it — just come and do it," he said. "Set aside any sense of superiority and immerse yourself in local life. With your own two hands, you can build a future here."

Contact the writers at liukun@chinadaily.com.cn

LIU KUN in Wuhan and XIONG XINYI