Pham Duoong Chau

It's said that the reason for falling in love with a city is often one of its inhabitants.

For Pham Duong Chau, a 35-year-old Vietnamese businessman, his favorite city in China is not a metropolis such as Beijing or Shanghai, but Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where his role model Jack Ma hails from.

Pham is the owner of the largest private Chinese language learning center in Hanoi, which was established 12 years ago.

Business was not good until four years ago, when he learned about Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commence giant Alibaba.

"At the time, I was a bit lost. But then I learned about Alibaba and Ma, and started following him by watching his speeches," he said.

Ma talked about how to start a company, how to design a system, how to establish a group, and how to do business - information that inspired the Vietnamese man.

"I admire him not because he is rich, but because he is willing to teach young people. As Ma did, I hired more young graduates and they brought in even more ideas," Chau said.

Contact the writer at zhaoyanrong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/05/2015 page3)