If you can assure us of our safety, your sister (Tourism Secretary Wanda T. Teo) will be very, very busy,” said a businessman in Shishi, an industrial city in Fujian province in China.
He was one of many who hosted my weeklong business trip to China last week.
“We have heard so much about the beauty of your country from relatives and friends who are there,” he told me.
But only the more daring push through with their visit, the businessman added.
If the Philippines becomes safe for tourists and investors, hordes of mainland Chinese will come for leisure and to invest, he said.
During my lunch meeting with Shishi government and business leaders, Mayor Huang Chunhui said China was looking at the Philippines as a source of fruits, vegetables, fish and seafood to feed its huge population.
The meeting with Mayor Huang was one of many in a weeklong business trip of my engineers at Ramon TT Environment Products Inc. to promote our company’s principal merchandise, D-1280x.
D-1280x is a US-made fuel additive that gives vehicles extra mileage while greatly reducing emissions, even in factories, thereby contributing to cleaner air.
Pollution is one of China’s biggest problems due to its millions of factories and vehicles.
Shishi City, for example, is covered by smog all day long.
Shishi is a two-hour ride by car from Xiamen, an island-city and one of the world’s most beautiful cities with its high-rise buildings and condominiums, manicured parks and beaches, new forests from tens of thousands of newly planted trees, and its storied past.
Xiamen, whose old name is Amoy, is a port and industrial city which, in 2016 alone, was visited by 60 million tourists.
The city is still a work in progress as more buildings are being built on lands reclaimed from the sea by billionaire real estate tycoon Jose Kho.
Kho, president of the China-Philippine Friendship Society, is constructing a multibillion-dollar city on a reclaimed area in Tondo, Manila.
When finished within 10 years, the new city in Manila will be little Singapore or Hong Kong with its residential and business condominiums and shops.
Kho, who hosted our one-week visit, has many first-class hotels all over China.