Refugee from the crisis

Kevin Callaghan left the US for China after the financial crisis broke out two years ago. With many years' experience in the real estate sector in US, he thought he could cooperate with Chinese companies on real estate projects. It did not work out.

When Poly Group, a State-owned enterprise he hoped to work for did not need a foreign expert at the time and Callaghan enrolled in an MBA course at the European Institute of Business Administration at Tsinghua University.

A fan of hutong culture, Callaghan, 52,now rents five rooms at Yu Baozhen's courtyard house, shared with METRO about what it is like to live among a traditional Chinese family.