ABSTRACT
Shuttle trade created complicated, circular trajectories of migration. As shuttle traders accumulated capital and developed business infrastructure, they registered businesses and turned into more ‘proper’, sedentary importers, wholesalers and retailers. But frequent (ranging from several times a year to once in a couple of years) travel to China to scout for merchandise and other business opportunities remained a necessity for some and a practice for nearly all Chinese in Eastern Europe (Nyíri 1999). As for those in the Russian Far East, much more frequent travel between Russia and China remains the rule even if they stop being shuttle traders and become more settled entrepreneurs.
