Chinese billionaire Li Qinfu hopes to turn Hangzhou Bay, less than a two hour drive from downtown Shanghai, into a luxury tourism Mecca. The 47-year-old chairman of Shanghai Nine Dragon Co Ltd, a listed company that owns a huge piece of real estate on the bay in coastal Zhapu, a town in Zhejiang province, has already built the first international standard polo and equestrian course in China, as well as a golf course, a marina and many European-style villas and apartments.

Li also has his own rags-to-riches tale. His ship has finally come in after he rented a bankrupt textile factory in the 1980s and transformed it into a Sino-Japanese joint venture exporting industrial work clothes to Japan. Li was also a leading producer of seats for automobiles and built an office resembling that of the Capitol in Washington DC.

After his company was listed on both of Shanghai's stock markets, Li switched his attention to a huge piece of swampland in his hometown of Zhejiang province, where he plans to build an upper-class tourism resort. He shared his vision with Shanghai Star Weekend reporter Xiao Chen at the recent 2009 Dragon Cup Sailing Regatta.

Q: What will Nine Dragon Hill look like in the future?

A: We are developing a 10.12-square-kilometers plot at the moment. We have already invested 2.5 billion yuan in the project and we will inject another 1 billion later this year. The total investment in the coming five years is expected to exceed 20 billion yuan. In the past, Nine Dragon Hill only concerned itself with (growing) vegetables and rice; in the future it will be closely linked to fashion and trend-setting. China still does not have a world-class tourism resort where people can go for golf, horse riding, boating and international conventions. But this status quo won't last too long.

Q: All of your projects seem related to luxury entertainment. What they have to do with local residents?

A: Nine Dragon Hill will become more beautiful and have a better environment. It will also provide a lot of job opportunities. About 4,000 farming families lived here in the past. In the future, we are going to provide 20,000 to 30,000 jobs. More importantly, Nine Dragon Hill is not just going to benefit the immediate surroundings of Zhapu and Pinghu, but will also serve the greater Zhejiang region, Shanghai and the rest of the country.

Q: How are the apartment and villa projects going?

A: The first phase will be ready to welcome its tenants around April and May next year. A total of 500,000 square meters of apartment space will be completed in 2010. But we are not a property company. I am not in a hurry to sell them all yet. The property here is going to be more expensive than those along the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. Its price will ultimately reach $10,000 per square meter.

Q: Is the project suffering from a shortage of funds?

A: I have been reducing my stock holdings and we have also launched credit cards in tandem with banks to raise cash. In fact, we will also have Nine Dragon projects soon in Beijing, Qingdao in Shandong province and Dali in Yunnan province. I am also looking at other islands along China's 18,000-km coastline.

Q: Are you worried that the muddy water of the East China Sea may discourage buyers?

A: Nine Dragons will become the Venice of the East. We can change the quality of the water within the embankment. The same kind of business opportunities may not exist in places where the water is clearer. It's also easier to catch fish in muddy water!

Q: You have often been described as a man chasing a luxury lifestyle. Is it true?

A: My role in the past was that of an entrepreneur. I'd go to work and go home, like most entrepreneurs. But today I play golf, buy expensive boats and live in luxury hotels. All these things have given people the false impression that I have been playing all the time instead of working. The news media have demonized luxury entertainment projects. In the past, there were only one or two foreigners visiting Nine Dragon Hill, now tens of thousands come every year. About 40 percent of our members are expats.

Q: What is the definition of success?

A: Being happy and healthy.

(China Daily 10/17/2009 page14)