Huang Nubo: Nature, culture and humility

He's developing part of Iceland, climbed the highest peaks and drives an i3 electric by BMW

Huang Nubo's desk has a wooden statue of a man half kneeling and covering his face with both hands.

"Every day I look at it and remind myself to be humble and kind to others," said Huang, a man of many facets including entrepreneur, mountaineer, poet and philanthropist.

Born in 1956, his army officer father died when he was only three. In 1969 his mother also died, leaving him an orphan and beggar who sometimes had nothing to eat for days.

In that same year he published his first poem.

He entered prestigious Peking University in 1977 and worked as a publicity official after graduation. But he quit in the early 1990s and started his own company, Beijing Zhongkun Investment Group, in 1995.

Huang then became internationally known for trying to buy a large expanse of Iceland.

In 2011, Zhongkun Group proposed a $8.9 million project on 300 square kilometers in Iceland to develop tourism and real estate, but the initiative was rejected by the country's Minister of Interior Ogmundur Jonasson.

But another chance came the next year when the government signed an agreement with the company to rent 0.3 percent of Iceland's total land for 99 years at a cost of more than $6 million.

But Huang has a larger blueprint for North Europe than only Iceland.

"Iceland is a regional hub," he said, adding that he also has plans to invest in resorts in Sweden, Denmark and Finland that boast abundant tourism resources.

"Iceland will probably become a future transition for Chinese people to Europe - they will stimulate the local tourism and real estate industries," he said.

Many Chinese companies that expanded their global reach have found challenges and even frustration, but Huang retains an inner calm.

"Amid the global economic downturn, protectionism is on the rise," he said. "Chinese entrepreneurs will have a fair play if they show enough patience and respect to the spirit of the contract."

Huang has also been a man of adventure. He has climbed the highest peaks of nearly all continents, including Mount Elbrus in Europe, Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, Mount McKinley in North America and Mount Aconcagua in South America.

And of course there is Qomolangma, or Mount Everest, which he has climbed three times, the first time in 2010 when he was 54.

But he has always been humble before nature. In every photo taken on Qomolangma, Huang can be seen sitting in a position lower than the peak.

"It is not that I conquered the mountain," he explained. "Rather I should thank the mountain for accepting me."

At the unveiling campaign for the BMW X5, Huang said the sport of mountain climbing is like driving the SUV - full of emotion, adventure and endeavor.

But he bought a BMW i3 in February, the latest electric car by the international auto giant, due to its eco-friendliness. Huang said he has integrated the concept into his personal life. As a member of the China Entrepreneurs Club, he is also promoting the i3 as well as the ideas of eco-friendliness to other club members.

Thanks to Huang's efforts, seven marble columns from the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, acquired more than a century ago by a former Norwegian cavalry officer who had settled in China, are set to return home this September.

According to an agreement signed last year with the KODE Art Museum of Bergen in Norway, Huang will donate 10 million Norwegian krone ($1.6 million) to the museum. In return, the columns will be sent back to China and displayed at Peking University, Huang's alma mater.

The university, which is adjacent to the grounds of the palace, has also established an academic cooperation program with the museum.

Huang said the destruction of the Old Summer Palace in the 1860s by foreign expeditionary forces was a "catastrophe and shame that the Chinese people can never forget".

"The relics of the palace carry cultural memories of the nation and should not be wandering abroad," he said.

Many times Huang said he must return his fortune to society and will donate half of his company's wealth to Peking University.

In 2009, Huang ranked ninth on the Hurun Philanthropy List with total donations of 303 million yuan ($48.6 million).

zhangzhao@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/20/2014 page3)