Li Sheng-tsiang is a local success story.
Brought up in a small fishing community on the outskirts of the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, his school friends laughed at him when he said he wanted to run his own business.
But the economic reforms brought new opportunities and today Mr Li runs a electric cable factory employing 70 people.
The new wealth being generated by factories like Mr Li’s and by an estimated 4,500 foreign joint ventures now established in the city, is transforming Wuhan.