Franco Cheung Koon-wah, deputy general manager of the Shenyang project office of Shui On Construction and Materials (Socam), describes his experiences working on the mainland.
I joined Socam in 2007 after working as an engineer in a Hong Kong construction company for more than 10 years.
After staying in the same field for such a long time, I found myself in a comfort zone and wanted more challenges than my position could offer.
An opportunity came at Socam and I was hired for the project management department. Initially, I oversaw projects from the Hong Kong office. Then the company asked me to relocate to Shenyang with my family in the middle of last year. I was appointed to look after the Shenyang Tiandi project, a property development that combines residential and commercial units, with a gross floor area of about one million square metres.
At first I felt half excited and half nervous. I knew it was going to be a big shift, having to move from the place I had lived in for many years to a second-tier city on the mainland.
I would need to adjust to a new culture, lifestyle and working environment, and to people with a different mentality. At the same time I saw it as a perfect opportunity to broaden my horizons and reach new heights in my career - it was the challenge I had longed for.