It was very tough. There weren't Chinese-Swedish dictionaries, so we had to use English-Swedish ones. At the time, there were no exchange programmes, so we all had to rely on the sole Swedish teacher who was sent here to teach us.

I began to work with the Swedish government not long after holding a huge concert in Beijing's Workers Stadium to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Sweden. It was quite a big gig for a 23-year-old to produce, and after several more shows, their government was so impressed that they invited me to Sweden to learn about their arts and culture. Interestingly, it was in Sweden that I met the lawyer of the legendary table tennis player Jan-Ove Waldner and I later became his agent in China.

I spent some years working as an editor with Xinhua. Then I was in Sweden between 2003 and 2005. You may think there shouldn't be a lot to report on in Sweden, but in fact the job took up most of my time there.

It was a life-changing experience, mostly because of how the country is run. Swedes think very highly of their social system, and they think their system - which emphasises fairness, freedom and innovation - is second to none. I was really struck by the wide use of technology in people's everyday lives. I had my driving licence renewed, among other paperwork, using a computer. That was very different from how people did things in China.

I applied for a transfer to a magazine affiliated with the news agency. Then I went into business development for the magazine. After some time, I returned to Xinhua to help it develop its new media. Meanwhile, a friend had a business idea that involved projecting interactive adverts onto billboards or buildings, and we did it together while I kept my day job. Things were looking up until the head of the Beijing airport was arrested for corruption and every project he approved had to be terminated.

A friend and I set up this online community of freelance translators to rate and rank different translation agencies, whose treatment of translators was very exploitative. It became China's biggest translator community, with more than 40,000 people registered. So we set up a platform that allowed agencies to put out jobs that translators could bid for. It went well and won us some awards in entrepreneurship contests.

Yes. In fact I did pretty well and climbed the ranks up to the level of a division head, comparable to the head of a county government. But in 2010, after 13 years at Xinhua, I resigned and joined a start-up that was making a magazine-reading app. The app is now the top in its field in China and has been downloaded by more than 100 million times. However, I've since quit the start-up to focus on my own venture.

It is going to roll out a new feature that provides content to service-based apps that do not offer any content. For instance, many people use taxi-hailing apps these days, but we start up the app only when we need a car and when we pay. The time in between can be used to provide users with content, such as magazine or news articles. The content is customisable depending on the nature of the app's business. The scheme would allow the magazine app to sell more adverts.

I've been enthralled by smart technology lately. Smart wristbands have been very popular with the tech-savvy but they have yet to become mainstream. I've been busy making smart jewellery that ladies would find pretty. I've been working with an Italian jewellery group who'll be responsible for the design. The product won't see the light of day for another six months or so, but many investors have already shown interest.