"I have a bed on the island," describes Wang Shuchun, a picture of China's moneyed property class. "I can have meetings in Beijing in the morning and go fishing by my yacht on the sea in the afternoon."
Departing from the shores of Shenzhen, in south China's Guangdong Province, a yacht is running full speed across big waves and in high winds. After 20 minutes, it arrives at Sanmen Island.
Located in the east of Shenzhen City where Dapeng Bay and Daya Bay meet, Sanmen Island covers a total of five square kilometers, twice the size of Gulangyu Island, the "Garden on the Sea", located in Xiamen City of Fujian Province.
Sanmen Island used to be an important military fortress. Armies had stationed there since the Guangxu period (1875-1908) in the Qing Dynasty. Later it was developed into a forbidden military zone until the middle of the 1990s, when due to strategic adjustment, armies withdrew from the island. Having been sealed for nearly a century, Sanmen Island is finally known to the outside world.
One day in 1997, Wang Shuchun went there for an ordinary business visit. There were plenty of fresh water resources on the island, recalled Wang, and he was selecting a place for his mineral water factory at that time.
He was deeply attracted by the unique environment of the island soon after he saw it.
Later Wang Shuchun made a bold decision of obtaining Sanmen Island. At that time, another company had already signed a contract of purchasing the use and exploitation rights of Sanmen Island with relative departments.
However, Wang didn't give up. He later found that the company didn't have enough money to cover the expense at one time. So Wang canvassed the company in person and finally convinced them of giving up the island. The first batch of payment cost him ten of millions of yuan.
At that time, there were no relevant regulations on the management of non-resident islands. According to Wang Shuchun, the contract signed with relative departments on the comprehensive exploitation of Sanmen Island based on two regulations including Regulation on Management of Real Estate Exploitation and the Regulations of the People's Liberation Army on Management of Real Estate.
In July this year, Regulations on the Protection and Utilization of No-resident Islands was issued and taken into effect. The private exploitation of islands has become a focus of public attention. Many people are longing for the day to have their own islands. However, Wang has already taken a lead in it, therefore he is called China's first island owner.
"Either die in cars or at sea"
His current title is board chairman of the Sanmen Island Holiday Resort. As a native of Changchun in northeast China's Jilin Province, Wang was born in 1962. He graduated from the History Department of Jilin University in 1984 and has successively worked in the Municipal Personnel Bureau and Cultural Bureau of Changchun. Later he went to Shenzhen and worked with the traffic police and also as an ordinary policeman for a while before turning to business soon after.
In 1988, Wang Shuchun registered his first company-Daxiong Trade Company, manufacturing raw materials used for the production of washing powder and fuel. Several years later, he accumulated millions of capital.
In 1992, he began in real estate. Wang's friends describe him as an idealist, always doing things at will and unwilling to follow rules docilely. He told reporters when being interviewed that he would like to "either die in a car or at sea".
Wang likes to go traveling by himself driving cars. He has traveled almost all over the country. He has circled the shorelines of Australia by driving for a week. He has about 10 sporting yachts. It is also said that he is the person in China who owns the most private yachts. After becoming the owner of Sanmen Island, he fell in love with sailing and fishing.
Club for Island Owners
With blue sea, white sand, a zigzag of coastline for 13 kilometers, there are five bays on the island with a radius of over 300 meters, two soft sand beaches and three cobblestone beaches as well as valleys and cliffs, volcanic rock mountains and five mountain peaks with an altitude of over 200 meters. The island is covered by many Taiwan Acacia (a tree that represents yearning between lovers in China). A lake on it is surrounded by mountains, therefore named "Love Lake".
Sanmen is 1.5 sea miles from Dapeng Bay, Shenzhen. It takes only two hours to Sanmen Island from Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dongguan and Huizhou. Since it had been closed from the outside world for a very long time, it is one of the most well preserved subtropical ecological islands in South China Sea, densely covered with various plants.
According to staff working on the Sanmen Island, after getting the island, Wang started to travel to various other islands around the world in order to study their ways of development. He has brought home 20,000 pictures.
Wang finally gave up the development mode of popular tourism and decide to try an elegant holiday resort. His dream is to build the island into a kingdom combining the most primitive natural scenery with the most culturally advanced residential environment.
The core aim is to set up an island owner club and to select 100 businessmen and celebrities to be members, among which people who would be interested in purchasing houses on the island, and who can live harmoniously with nature, as well as being caring, tasteful and environment-friendly.
It is his thinking that Sanmen Island will especially design 100 villas of different character according to the requirements of 100 club members.
Zhang Yanning, head of the council of China's Association of Entrepreneurs, has paid a visit to the island and suggested to build the island into a vacation base for Chinese entrepreneurs. It is reported that Li Ning, China's "prince of gymnastics", was attracted by the idea of living an idyllic island life as part owner of the island. He has taken famous Beijing architects to visit the island with him.
Commercial value behind 90 million yuan
After getting the island, Wang started the construction of infrastructure facilities. He has spent huge amounts of money (90 million yuan) on drainage, water and power supplies as well as repairing and rebuilding the simple barracks left by armies into special mountain cabins.
Wang also invited foreign designers to draw up a plan for the island. He plans to equip the island with a small-scale airport, riding field, hunting area, glide patch and so on.
It is reported that the reciprocation rate of island exploitation is very low due to the huge cost of construction of infrastructure facilities and accessories, making many businessmen who want to realize their dream of being an island owner flinch.
The goal of Wang Shuchun is not to sustain losses in business but he doesn't count that he can make money from it either.
"I am not a real businessman. Real businessmen are concerned about the reciprocation rate of investment. My dream is that I will be properly cared for when I am old," said Wang.
(China.org.cn by Wang Qian and Daragh Moller, December 7, 2003)
