Chris Ruffle concedes people may be a bit surprised when they suddenly lay eyes on his hotel-cum-winery in the Shandong countryside.
'When Chinese come over the crest of the hill, I think they're a bit surprised,' says the British fund manager, who has been doing business in China for close to three decades.
The object of attention is an authentic Scottish castle built of granite blocks that sits on a craggy hill overlooking Qiushan Lake, complete with a blue Scottish flag flapping in the wind atop a turret. The castle is the work of Yorkshireman Ruffle and well-known Scottish architect Ian Begg, who earlier helped the fund manager rebuild an original castle near St Andrews.
The castle is furnished with imported oak-panelled walls, poster beds, period furniture, rugs, paintings, sash-and-case windows and antiques from Ruffle's personal collection. The imposing banquet hall, with seating for 60 diners, and snappy black and white tiled floors, has a painting of Sir Henry Wotton, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to Venice, hanging above a marble fireplace. Guests to the castle are greeted by local Chinese staff in tartan outfits - one possibly shy Chinese staff wears a kilt over his long pants.
The hotel has six rooms - four old European style and two Japanese (Ruffle lived in Japan for several years).
The Oxford-educated Ruffle describes his castle as being 'truly reminiscent of the highland comforts enjoyed in another era by a Scottish chieftain and his family'. He adds that the structure also incorporates all of today's modern comforts.