Quotes by Zhang Xin - Page 1 | QuoteForever

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I don't do evening business dinners, and I don't do weekends.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Evening
Dinners
Weekends
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China - if you think about what is the character of China, it's enormous scale. It's bigness.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
China
Enormous
Scale
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Isolation means a lack of growth. I grew up in China at a time when the country was completely isolated. That era is over.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Country
Growth
Mean
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Quickly, after I landed in England, I found out ways to get scholarships. England turned out to be a very encouraging place for me.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Encouraging
Landed
Scholarships
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On the weekends, I do the usual parental things, going to the boys' football tournaments or getting out for a hike along the Great Wall.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Great Wall
Parental
Tournaments
Usual
Wall
Hike
Weekends
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Chinese no longer crave so much for food and accommodation, but they do crave democracy. I stand by that. I don't know which model China will follow.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
China
Chinese
Democracy
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Many Chinese companies are run like military camps with military discipline. We do not run a company that way. It does not help the creative process.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Camps
Chinese
Creative Process
Discipline
Military
Companies
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Growth will be slower, no one denies that. But the question is: Where are the chances and opportunities now? I see some positive and some negative trends.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Opportunity
Growth
Negative
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Many Chinese entrepreneurs are now donating for education; others support foundations in health care and research. None of us wants to be the richest guy in the cemetery.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Entrepreneur
Guy
Support
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I think women of our generation went through Cultural Revolution, went through hardship, coming from nowhere, and suddenly see China's amazing opportunity. So women just seized the opportunity.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Amazing
China
Hardship
Our Generation
Revolution
Nowhere
Coming
Cultural
Generation
Seized
Suddenly
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No economy, no company, in fact no individual can develop its full potential today without embracing two fundamental trends - globalization and digitalization. They will dominate for quite some time to come.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Full Potential
Fundamentals
Two
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I find it hard to be labelled in this new 'super-rich' category because we all grew up with very little. The idea that 'to get rich is glorious' is really a new phenomenon. I certainly didn't grow up like that.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Glorious
Phenomenon
Rich
Category
Certainly
Grow Up
Labelled
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It's a good thing that it is getting simpler to register a company in China, it is good that the exchange rate of our currency is getting more flexible and that it's getting easier for Chinese businesspeople to travel. All of this opens up our economy.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Chinese
Currency
Economy
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Our tenants now are companies like Uber, the taxi service, Meituan.com, China's version of Groupon - and a large number of startups. These companies operate in a modern way, just like their customers: They go on the Internet, look for an offer and take it.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Looks
Numbers
Uber
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Many years ago, we were only able to build boxes. Today, architects from all over the world are working with us - Zaha Hadid from London, Gerkan, Marg and Partner from Hamburg, Kengo Kuma from Japan. We brought design and digitalization from abroad to China.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Design
Japan
Years
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But it is a worry that there have been so many delays in the reform of China's state-owned enterprises. We all know that private companies are run more efficiently than state ones. These reforms are very much anticipated for the potential dynamism they could create.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Running
Reform
Worry
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I have a profound dislike for showing off one's material wealth. This is insensitive and it is not what human hearts are made for. But what I like about China and sometimes miss in Europe is the entrepreneurial spirit of our young people, their ambition and dynamism.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Ambition
Europe
Heart
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It's not easy to be my sons because we're very high profile. We try so hard to give them a normal life. I'm very, very tight with them about money. I don't give that money until they ask, 'I need 100 yuan for my lunch card,' and so on. So they never have extra money.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Lunch
Normal
Normal Life
Profile
Card
Extra
Sons
Tight
Yuan
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China has consistently surprised us. When I returned from the United States many years ago, it was unimaginable that we would end up where we are now. What China has achieved defies all logic. I credit this to the hard work and enterprising spirit of the Chinese people.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Hard Work
People
Years
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Because people along the route had realized that there was demand and quickly organized supply. That's so Chinese. In a well-organized country like Germany, such a problem may not have arisen in the first place, but in China people immediately recognized an opportunity.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Opportunity
Country
People
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But the higher our standard of living, the higher our levels of education, the further people will look around. And we can see which level of openness other societies enjoy. We are no different - we too want more freedom. The question is: How much freedom will be allowed?
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Different
Looks
People
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Country [China] needs to continue opening up and keep connecting. It needs to realize that the world has become one. The old concept of isolation, the idea that you can solve your problems on your own does not work anymore - neither in cultural, economic, nor political terms.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Country
Ideas
Opening Up
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Investors don't like uncertainty. The market is telling us that they need certainty, they need to see where the economy is heading. If the government is committed to continue the Open Door policy, they will need to come up with concrete policies and execution steps to increase confidence.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Government
Doors
Needs
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It is worthwhile to engage in something that is close to one's heart. I had a scholarship. So if I donate money to give brilliant Chinese students an opportunity to study abroad, then this embodies everything I believe in: education, globalization, social mobility. I am an example of social mobility.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Opportunity
Believe
Heart
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We have become so quick and effective in building things today. It would be easy to build another Pyramid of Giza or another Great Wall. But these buildings haven't withstood the test of time because of their building quality. They stand tall because they have a symbolic value, they represent a culture.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Quality
Pyramids
Wall
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Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he will donate $45 billion of his wealth to philanthropy. Two years ago, my husband and I decided to endow $100 million to set up the SOHO China Scholars. This program will give financial aid to Chinese students so they can attend the best universities in the world.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Husband
Years
Zuckerberg
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China reformed its state sector before, in the late 1990s. Tens of millions were laid off at the time. That was scary and we had warnings of social unrest. But it did not happen. Instead, there was a restructuring in our economic system. I am not sure if China will follow a Western playbook in this respect.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Scary
Social Unrest
Warning
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I'm very, very focused on my children. In fact, I'm very religious about having breakfast with them every morning, having dinner with them every evening, and spend all the weekends with them that I don't work. So as long as I'm not traveling, I'm always with them and I go to their soccer and tennis matches.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Breakfast
Dinner
Evening
Focused
Soccer
Tennis
Work Morning Always
Work Morning Breakfast
Fact
Having
Spend
In Fact
Matches
Weekends
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Our company has only been active in Beijing and Shanghai, two very market-dominated cities. This was an advantage. Land is purchased here in public auctions, in a transparent way. When you do real estate development outside Beijing and Shanghai it is good to have "guanxi" - good relations within the local government.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Government
Land
Real
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On the one hand the world is getting more integrated and we should not dismiss social values as "Western" when they are actually modern values. On the other hand, individual countries have their own history and their own evolution. Trade unions, for example, don't play the same role in China as they do in Europe or the US.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Country
Europe
Hands
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We are not very good at this. Our success rests on our international experience and on our ability to read the market. And I contest the notion that you can only succeed in China when you are well-connected. Neither my husband nor I are "princelings" - children of influential people, that is. And yet China has enabled us to succeed.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Children
Husband
People
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I firmly believe that digitalization has only just begun in China. In addition to the taxi, transport, shopping and hotel businesses, many other industries will follow: education, health care, administration, even the legal branch - everything, really. There is still a lot of opportunity in China for the inventive and ambitious ones.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Opportunity
Believe
Shopping
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I used to ask myself why American universities are financed through endowments. Now I know: During the early days of America, the state was poor and when citizens wanted to set something up, they needed to collect money themselves. Historically, this was different in Europe. There used to be a strong state, a monarch or a king. He provided money.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Kings
Europe
Strong
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The question is not about whether it will work or not. It's how quickly we can pull it off. Structural change will happen. When economies grow, there comes a time when you cannot rely on investment alone. We had that. The return on investment is becoming less and less. So we have to change. The old model doesn't work anymore. It's a question of speed.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Becoming
Return
Speed
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I'm afraid what we are building today will not have the same impact and sustainability of the architecture of a 100, 500 or 1,000 years ago. The buildings of those days were miracles. We don't perform such miracles today. So we should be a little more modest. For my part, I'll be glad to show one of my buildings one day to my grandchildren and say: I'm proud of that.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Grandchildren
Impact
Years
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When we started out, we didn't really think that the era of great opportunity would end one day. We were much too busy developing our companies. But in today's China you can build a city, even a mega-city like Beijing or Shanghai, within 10 or 15 years. And then you are done. So in real estate development, the Gründerzeit is over. But that is not the case in other sectors.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Opportunity
Real
Thinking
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I think our legal system needs to be developed. Cases of citizens who are detained and then have to wait much too long for a trial - that is scary, for everyone. When someone commits a crime he needs to be charged quickly. Why does this take so long in many cases? I don't know. Is it because our legal system is still rudimentary? China has promised to modernize its legal system. This has high priority.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Long
Priorities
Thinking
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China's economy became more complex. By now there is a large number of small- and medium-sized companies that work quite differently from big, state-owned enterprises. They don't follow any long-term business plan and don't rent office space for years to come. They start out and need an office right away, for a week, a month or half a year, and they want to be among other entrepreneurs like themselves.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Numbers
Office Space
Years
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When we started out, we were among the first. Beijing had no and Shanghai had very few large buildings. At that time, it was all about building, building, building - and then selling, selling, selling. We were working like a manufacturer. Soon, however, we realized that land was running out in Beijing and Shanghai. So we started keeping our buildings, and managing and renting them out. We became landowners. That was the second act.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Running
Firsts
Land
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I am a runner. Last October, there was a marathon here in Beijing. I didn't participate this time, but friends told me that the run wasn't prepared too well. The organizers had only arranged about three hours' worth of food and water supplies. Most people don't finish within three hours, however. Too bad for them - or so it seemed. In fact, however, even those finishing last were perfectly taken care of, particularly during the fourth and fifth hour when demand is highest.
Zhang Xin / Business Magnate
Running
Taken
Water
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