US national living the Chinese dream

When he was 16, Brian Linden, from Chicago, started cleaning carpets 40 hours a week to make a living. In 1983, with little hope in life, he was in the fourth year of the job when he met a professor from Chicago University.

At the time, Linden had no idea where China was, so he never expected his destiny would be linked with the country or that he would devote himself to protecting its culture.

"'I don't have any choice.' That's what I told the professor when he said I shouldn't clean carpets all the time," recalled Linden, co-founder of the Linden Center, a heritage hotel in Xizhou township, Dali city, Yunnan province.