Mr. Shangkong | Sochi Games brings back memories, but let's move on

My first trip to the United States in early 2008 - with the Beijing Olympic Games just months away - gave me a street-level glimpse of China's rising profile on Wall Street as well as among ordinary Americans.

I stayed at a hotel near Fifth Avenue in New York City. There were already some Chinese-speaking consumers on the well-known shopping strip but Putonghua was yet to become a required language for salespeople in luxury stores. Now, it is a different story, as American and Chinese travellers can tell you.

This brings to mind a story told by a friend at Lenovo. After its landmark acquisition of IBM's personal computer business in 2005, Lenovo sent some senior executives to the US to take over the business.

On arrival, one executive was stopped by a visa control officer and was asked the basic questions encountered by all travellers to America: "Why are you coming to America? What is the purpose of your visit?"

The executive said she was going to take over IBM's personal computer business for her Chinese employer Lenovo. The visa officer was shocked and thought she must be kidding. Lenovo? What is that?

While watching the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics on television, my memories about the Beijing Olympics began flooding back. There were plenty of hilarious stories at the time as well as a few bad jokes about the Beijing Games.

But just six years on, China is the most talked about topic for global business, and for politics, too. Here are two examples: exports of textiles from Scotland to China are about to hit a record high after sales in the first nine months of last year reached nearly £9.7 million (HK$122.9 million), outstripping the total for 2012; China has also become the biggest market for red wine for the first time, overtaking France and Italy, where the quantity imbibed has been falling, according to a recent wine industry research report.