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Once I became interested in China, I flew to Beijing in 1996 to spend half a year studying Mandarin. The city stunned me.

Growing up in Singapore, I wasn't allowed to visit China. So when I was finally able to go there after the country began opening up to tourism in the 1990s, I found it to be utterly astounding.

I first came to China as a child on a visit with my family in 1978.

You have to be willing to totally immerse yourself in China in order to have in-depth exposure to China.

In practice, I've had a presence in China since 1998 with my commercial spaces and shops.

And then I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go to China in 1980, which was quite early.

I wanted to do something far from my intellectual and physical home, so I went to live in Beijing for eight months and took Mandarin Chinese.

I always love China, especially the old China.

I had the interesting experience of having lived and worked for six years in China with Procter & Gamble, and that just changes, I think, your whole perspective in living overseas and living in a country like China.

Although I don't like the way the Chinese do business, I continue to do business in China. I have to. They're the next world power.