A game of Dou Di Zhu at Bai Lei China Town. (Maggie Brown/CBC)

A new immigrant from China has opened a teahouse in Charlottetown, a type of social gathering place he says is as popular as Starbucks in his home country.

Bai Yunpeng told CBC News Tuesday he opened Bai Lei China Town on Grafton Street to give Chinese immigrants a reason to stay on the Island.

"They came come here because the PNP program the government have, but after one year they left because they have no fun here. There's no place for them to have fun," said Bai.

P.E.I. has seen a huge increase in immigration following a huge push on the immigrant investor section of the Provincial Nominee Program in 2007-08. Thousands of immigrants will come to the Island under the program, many of them from China, but keeping them from moving to other parts of the country will be a big challenge.

Bai hopes his teahouse will help Chinese immigrants feel more at home.

"It's kind of like Starbucks. It's that popular. Every corner of a street you could find one," he said.

The main feature of Bai Lei China Town is a big, bright room is filled with long tables and chairs. Every table has a deck of cards and a bowl of snacks on it. There's no charge to sit, but you do pay for the tea and snacks.

There's also a room to play mahjong — a Chinese game played with tiles — and Bai hopes to have Asian groceries for sale soon.

The place has only been open for a few days, but already Bai said some students and new immigrants have dropped in. Word is slowly getting out and a card competition is planned for this Saturday.

Everyone, he said — Chinese or not — is welcome at the teahouse.