Charles Merkle, a Swiss national, came to Shanghai in 1995 with little money and no job. All he had was a skill he thought was in demand.

Merkle, who is now 51, has since founded a thriving marketing consulting firm, CBC Marketing Research, which is seeking to raise about 12 million Swiss francs ($11.44 million) in Berne, Switzerland, by listing its Swiss subsidiary, CBC Schweiz AG.

To be sure, CBC, with a turnover of around 5 million Swiss Francs in 2007, is small even by SME standards. But to Merkle and thousands of foreign entrepreneurs, China is a land of opportunity not only for multinational behemoths such as GE or ABB, but also for young talents from around the world.