For a foreign businessman, English property entrepreneur Kevin McCabe has one of the most atypical reasons for investing in China's property market - soccer.
McCabe, the chairman of UK property company Scarborough Holdings and owner of Sheffield United football club, first set foot in the mainland in 2002 to conclude a sponsorship deal for the soccer club.
'Owning Sheffield United, we got the opportunity back in 2002 to have a sponsor from China, a company operating from a suburb of Xian called Desun, which made apple-juice cordial,' McCabe reminisced in Hong Kong.
'I spent maybe a week visited Beijing, Xian and Shenzhen. I saw China generally and recognised it was a place we should look into to expand our real estate activities.'
His preconception of China was that it would be 'very-old fashioned, very difficult to travel and to conduct business'.
However, the trip gave him the reverse picture. He was impressed to see towns and cities being developed with 'fantastic infrastructure, with some very good and impressive buildings', as well as Chinese businessmen who were keen to talk to European entrepreneurs.