While many of China's top entrepreneurs, managers and executives seek opportunity in top-tier cities in the east and along the coast, Cui Wei is taking the road less traveled by seeking his fortune out west.

The 56-year-old Beijinger, who spent more than 20 years in Shenzhen as an executive in offshore drilling logistics industry, is now living in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

"I moved to the west not because I read some random book about it or I thought I wanted to be here. My experience over the past two decades allows me to foresee the future of industrial transfer," Cui said, sitting comfortably in his office in the heart of a booming high-tech zone in Chengdu.