Transportation Special: Bombardier grows from 'zero' to a leader in trains and planes

Bombardier China, a branch of Canada's Bombardier, a manufacturer of rail equipment and aircraft, is one of the most successful foreign companies in the rail business in China, it did not get there overnight, according to its chief executive.

"We went through a step-by-step process in China, not a leapfrog process," said Zhang Jianwei, its president, describing how they went from one person and zero business.

Zhang explained that he was sent to China in 1999 to develop Bombardier's rail transportation business, after having left the country for more than 10 years, and did not have any employees, or even an office.