WHAT I DID ON MY HOLIDAYS

DAVID TANG

Global roaming

David Tang is the sort of man who does not do things by halves - despite receiving medical advice to do so. He claims that suffering from the skin disorder psoriasis has slowed down his travels, as instructed by his doctors, but nevertheless managed to take a holiday with a breathtaking global itinerary.

Early in the summer, he travelled along Italy's Amalfi Coast by boat. Mr Tang described the tour as revealing one of the 'wonderfullest' coastlines in the world. 'You could almost see all the Roman gods on the cliffs and in the seas,' he said. His vacation did not stop there. 'Then I went to see the Venice Biennale; then took my children to New York to see their friends.'

He also managed to get into the party spirit after all that lounging about on a boat, ending the holidays with a stag party in Havana, Cuba - 'one of the most amazing and amusing cities in the world. I now feel more tired than before I went on holiday!' There is a good chance that Mr Tang - often photographed with a fat stogie in hand - souvenired a few Cuban cigars to help him unwind again upon arriving home.

Mr Tang is the high-profile owner of the Shanghai Tang stores and of the stylishly exclusive China Clubs in Hong Kong, Beijing and Singapore. He was described by the magazine Cigar Aficionado as a 'mass of contradictions, wrapped in an enigma, businessman/impresario/bon vivant', and his enthusiastic holidaying would seem to bear this description out.