Star of the west rises from communist rubble of East Berlin

Paul van Dyk - currently rated the world's top DJ - has probably the strongest fan base in Hong Kong of any of his contemporaries, but his gig at Hitec next week will be his first in the city in more than four years.

However, the Berlin trance artist has made numerous trips north of the border, regularly playing mainland cities from Guizhou to Shanghai and Beijing. Van Dyk says China's burgeoning scene excites him, even though his past two Shanghai appearances were interrupted by police - one after he'd played for just 45 minutes.

'Too many people had turned up, so the fire marshals closed it down,' says van Dyk. 'I had hardly got going. Beijing has been much better.'

Even so, his taste for China and its enthusiastic crowds is undimmed. 'This is the great thing about electronic music - new people discover it,' he says. 'There's a big difference in atmosphere with, say, South America, but on purpose I don't tend to notice the difference. I stay focused on my own sound.'

Arguably one of the best artists to come out of East Germany since the Berlin Wall fell, van Dyk was voted the world's No1 DJ last year by the music poll run by DJ Magazine, and has been in the top 10 since 1998. He also received a Grammy nomination last year - the first time an award was handed out in the new electronic/dance category - for his latest release, Reflections.

Although van Dyk lost out to Basement Jaxx's Kish Kash, the DJ says he was delighted by the recognition for his album, which featured the hits Time of Our Lives, Connected, Nothing but You and Crush. 'It's a great honour - a Grammy is one of the biggest awards a musician can win,' he says. 'It doesn't really matter if you win or not, it's more the nomination.'

Van Dyk discovered western music via cross-border radio airwaves in communist East Berlin when, as a teenager, he listened to the Smiths and New Order. After the wall came down, club culture spread throughout Berlin and van Dyk started creating his sound. He hit the big time with For an Angel in 1994, typical of his trademark sound of drifting, heavenly keyboards over a throbbing bass line, and has since had more than a dozen hits, including the classic club anthem Tell Me Why.