Zhu Hai is a beautiful city. It is surrounded by sea on three sides, and connected to Guang Zhou in the north. Its air is full of the sea scent which is fondly familiar to the residents in southern cities. The main road, which winds its way along well-shaped palm trees, is a major access road into the interior of China . Due to its comparatively isolated character and its developing industries and commerce, Zhu Hai is a desirable place to reside, but nost for e ntrepreneurs to pursue their careers. Furthermore not all the local people speak the national dialect of Mandarin. In the beginning, Hong Xiu Ping didn't expect that his dream could be realized in this small, beautiful city, instead of in big, flourishing, crowded cities. After his dream has grown like a ‘seed in the rich soil of Zhu Hai”, Hong Xiu Ping, with a craving for success, captures plum after plum and enjoys the juicy taste of one after another.

Located in Xiang Zhou Cultural Plaza of Zhu Hai and covering about 3000 square meters, Gateway Language Village is advancing on the road of development under the guidance of Hong Xiu Ping. “ GLV ” has grown to a quite sizeable scale now. What characterizes “ GLV ” is Ping 's teaching philosophy of “Total Immersion Experience” in English. The sole language allowed to be used in GLV, is English. “ GLV ” believes in teaching English through English, not through Chinese. The initial five years of hard work has brought success to Hong Xiu Ping. Last year, GLV was recognized as one of the “Top Ten Famous Foreign Language Training Organizations” in all of China . Without a lot of previous advertising , GLV stepped into the top league and turned out to be a “ Dark Horse ” in the field of language training education.

GLV is developing at an amazing speed and Hong Xiu Ping often receives considerable acclaim for his accomplished management skills and financial prowess. “Whenever business people associate with me,” says Ping , “I can hear my heart beating strongly with fears.” “I consider myself an intellectual, not a businessman.”

In recent years, what sets Ping and his organization apart from others is his accumulation of “the talented”. He believes that any organization must learn to retain talented people in order to be successful. Hong Xiu Ping likes to make friends and has a unique gift for making friends with all kinds of people. In this way, he becomes successful. He agrees with the famous Buddhist philosopher, Nan Huai Jin, “ If you are making use of people who are better than you are, such as your teachers, your achievement is limitless, if you are making use of people who are as good as you are, such as your friends, your achievement is a little limited, if you are making use of people who are of no quality, you will end up with no achievement.” Sitting in an obvious place in Hong Xiu Ping's home, is a set of international chess pieces. Once he told a journalist: “ In my childhood, I was fond of playing chess, especially with someone who was better than I .”

Hong Xiu Ping clearly understands that he is good at developing cultural projects, but lacks ability to manage detailed work. He believes to manage anything well requires co-operation and support of all the people involved. He hopes everyone around him can give him the necessary support.

Hong Xiu Ping considers his teachers, staff, and all the students as his co-partners, willing to face all the ups and downs with him together. People who are not familiar with GLV at first glance cannot usually identify who is the boss. Everyone in the school, including the students, address him directly as “ Ping ”. Hong Xiu Ping often gives lectures to the new students. With a lot of meaningful body language and facial expressions, he is profoundly appreciated while having interaction with the students in his classes. He tells every student: “ The biggest challenge in GLV is to make friends with foreign teachers by using the tool of English .” Foreign teachers in GLV have been known as a beautiful part of the scenery in Zhu Hai. There are teachers from 14 countries such as the lady from England with gray-hair and glasses, and the young American man with meticulously braided dredlocks. They remain here in Zhu Hai, to attain the specific goal of improving Chinese people's English. In GLV, cultures from 14 countries join in complete harmony. Hong Xiu Ping, himself, considers it a miracle.  

After work, outside of GLV, teachers and students continue chatting in the Cultur al Plaza . “Students are not willing to leave. Their conversations last for a long time,” said one new staff to a journalist.

What Hong Xiu Ping always emphasizes is the sustained cultivation of culture. Among GLV students, there are a lot of entrepreneurs. There is no lack of “Crouching Tigers” and “Hidden Dragons” with their thousands and tens of thousands of accumulated wealth. After studying in GLV, many of them offer to sign a partnership with GLV, some even offering all kinds of unexpected preferential measures. Facing all the alluring opportunities, Hong Xiu Ping refuses them one by one. “ If I can not make sure that we are cherishing the same ideal, and having the same enthusiasm, I cannot allow GLV to get into someone's car, no matter how luxurious it is and how fast it can run. The faster it goes in the wrong direction, the farther it is away from our final aim. Direction and aim are more important than the speed itself. I would rather have an old ox pulling the cart in the right direction than drive a top-grade car fast in the wrong way. Making slow progress is a lot better than trying to go south by driving the car north ,” Hong Xiu Ping explained to the journalist. On this point, Ping 's attitude is completely different from the attitude he has for making use of people. During the ground-breaking period of GLV, Hong Xiu Ping insisted on his own philosophy: “ Working steadily makes solid progress ”. He never uses other people's generously offered money to take risks. While developing slowly and earning small amounts of money, his school never went into debt. It is not because he didn't need further development. In fact, he does think that it is the right time for GLV to develop and expand itself from its home in Zhu Hai to Guang Zhou, Shen Zhen, and even further points all over the China . What he wants to do first is to popularize “ GLV culture ”. “ What attracts my teachers is the cultural environment here in GLV, not the benefits and incentives I provide, and not really the environment in Zhu Hai .” said Ping proudly.

Hong Xiu Ping is a native of Hang Zhou, Zhe Jiang province. When he was young, he lived in a small alley near Xi Hu Lake. After dinner, he used to walk on the banks of Xi Hu Lake. Considering that Hong Xiu Ping's English is as fluent as his Chinese right now, it is hard to believe that he handed his English test paper in to his teacher absolutely blank. After he met a foreigner near Xi Hu Lake, he was inspired with the fascination of languages. To master a language means opening a door to the culture. Therefore, he had the noble ambition to go abroad, whenever there would be a chance, to bring those cultures back to China , and to be “ the Prometheus ” of Chinese Culture.

There were lots of ups and downs on the long way to the realization of his dream. Deeply attracted by the western culture, Hong Xiu Ping found himself completely lost abroad. “Out there, it is very difficult to build one's confidence in being a Chinese. During that period of time, I realized that what I should yearn for is my own 5000 years of Chinese culture and history.” Therefore, when an upsurge of studying abroad spread throughout China in the early 1990s, Hong Xiu Ping resolutely came back to China . Without holding American dollars and the “Green Card” in his hand, Hong Xiu Ping didn't even have enough time to let the US leave more impression in his memory.

After returning to China , his special studying-abroad identity didn't pave the way clearly and easily to his splendid future. In fact, his career in China was full of challenges. Passing along and floundering, Hong Xiu Ping moved from America to Qiong Hai, Qiong Hai to Hai kou, from Hai Kou to Guang Zhou, and finally from Guang Zhou to Zhu Hai. In Zhu Hai, his expectation was to be an English teacher with his fluent English. He ran into snags and everywhere his simple dream was foiled. Hong Xiu Ping had no real choice but to hire himself to be his own boss. It is because of this “ no choice ” that he has developed “ Gateway Language Village ” which has enjoyed increasing prestige in Zhu Hai and China .

Hong Xiu Ping will never forget those ground-breaking days. “GLV” grew out of its predecessor---an old and abandoned KTV room. At that moment, Hong Xiu Ping was always concerned how to pay the bills and how to pay for his staff. It is said he had a dilemma whether or not to turn on the air conditioner during the hot summer days. Not to turn it on was to save money, and to turn it on was to get more students. “ There were 8 students on the first enrollment day. It was a lot better than what I expected ,” Hong Xiu Ping recalled with melancholic memories.  

What made Hong Xiu Ping fall in love with this city was the process of starting his career and settling down in Zhu Hai. Considering its distinguishing features and developing trend, Ping thinks that Zhu Hai is an ideal place to develop his cultural projects. It is now time for him to do something for Zhu Hai. To enhance the quality and impression of Zhu Hai, people should work hard on retaining and improving the culture. At this point, the most important thing to do is attract all kinds of talented people. “ I want to build a ‘stage' where the talented can follow their ‘fate' to meet each other. I want to create a better cultural environment for them ,” Hong Xiu Ping related to the journalist. He aspires for Zhu Hai to become an international village with a mixture of Eastern and Western cultures, and hopes it will develop itself in a completely harmonious way. Furthermore he hopes it will become “ The Window on Cultures of the World ”. Looking towards his dream, Hong Xiu Ping makes all kinds of efforts: He studies hard and peruses all kinds of Chinese books to extract the essence from Chinese culture. As long as he is informed about lectures of his admired scholars, Hong Xiu Ping will be attracted to attend their lectures. Several times famous scholars whom he has long admired have been invited to and attended salons and forums at GLV. The success of GLV has made Hong Xiu Ping full of confidence on the path to develop his school and Zhu Hai. Tortuous is the road of development, but prospects are bright.  

There is a wooden rocking chair in his home and he brought it with him when he moved from Hai Nan. As he sat in a comfortable pose, slowly rocking in the chair and speaking to the journalist, he related his dream : “Zhu Hai is surrounded by sea on three sides. I would like to become a famous Chinese person like Song Jiang, and complete my dream of improving Zhu Hai's culture.”