Spot light: With Li Qinfu

Chinese billionaire Li Qinfu hopes to turn Hangzhou Bay, less than a two hour drive from downtown Shanghai, into a luxury tourism Mecca. The 47-year-old chairman of Shanghai Nine Dragon Co Ltd, a listed company that owns a huge piece of real estate on the bay in coastal Zhapu, a town in Zhejiang province, has already built the first international standard polo and equestrian course in China, as well as a golf course, a marina and many European-style villas and apartments.

Li also has his own rags-to-riches tale. His ship has finally come in after he rented a bankrupt textile factory in the 1980s and transformed it into a Sino-Japanese joint venture exporting industrial work clothes to Japan. Li was also a leading producer of seats for automobiles and built an office resembling that of the Capitol in Washington DC.

After his company was listed on both of Shanghai's stock markets, Li switched his attention to a huge piece of swampland in his hometown of Zhejiang province, where he plans to build an upper-class tourism resort. He shared his vision with Shanghai Star Weekend reporter Xiao Chen at the recent 2009 Dragon Cup Sailing Regatta.