I don't do evening business dinners, and I don't do weekends. Zhang Xin More Quotes by Zhang Xin More Quotes From Zhang Xin 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 japan design years 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 government land real 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 currency chinese economy 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 office-space numbers years 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 uber numbers looks 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 hard-work people years 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 europe country hands 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 opportunity country people 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 reform worry running 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 social-unrest scary warning 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 speed becoming return 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 going things great football 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 grow find new rich 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 generation amazing women opportunity 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 never lunch money life 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 dinner work morning children China - if you think about what is the character of China, it's enormous scale. It's bigness. Zhang Xin think you china character 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 discipline creative process way 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 out get place me