A supermarket with an history of love and courage
The imperio is named by Gran pa Dun Yong, one the first generation of Chinese stokers who came to Amsterdam after the First World War. THeywere called 'blue pipes' after the blue pipes on these ships. Dun Yong, whose real name - Tang Yong - was misspelled in the Netherlands at the time, married in 1945 with the Rotterdam Stientje van Gaans. They went to live on the Amsterdam Recht Boomssloot. A year later their son Hengko was born. Dun Yong worked for years as a cook in various Chinese restaurants. In 1959 he caught his eye in a small shop of less than 15 square metres in the former 'Warehouse of Men's and Children's Clothing by Bernard Wöstmann' on the corner of Geldersekade and Stormsteeg.
In 1968, Hengko went to Hong Kong for a few years to learn Cantonese. There he met teacher Wai Ming, born in Shanghai, whom he married. Together they returned to Amsterdam and took over their father's business in 1972. The supermarket on the ground floor has been running all the way up to the Zeedijk since 2002.
credit
http://www.winkelstories.com/DunYong00.html (in Dutch)