Formula for success

A veteran Italian businessman says a stranger's tip on his first visit to China has helped him find his own way in the country for more than two decades, Wang Ru reports.

In 1992, Airaldo Piva was assigned to find chemical material suppliers in China by Sumitomo Corporation in Japan.

China once opened its doors to his famous fellow Italians, Marco Polo and Father Matteo Ricci, an Italian missionary who came to China in 1583. But for Piva several centuries later, China remained a mystery.