Korean ex-auto man on China's two decades of changes

Song Hoon-chon (left) and his family enjoy a boat ride on Guanting Reservoir in Beijing.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A memoir by Song Hoon-chon, a former chief representative in China for South Korean automobile manufacturer Hyundai, was recently published in Chinese.

Beijing Jiyi, or 20 Years in Beijing, tells the many stories of change in this country in the past two decades from the author's perspective. Song is among the early South Korean expatriates, who came to China ahead of diplomatic ties between the two nations established in August 1992.

He set up the representative office for Hyundai in Beijing and went about selling his company cars in the Chinese market for the next seven years. Much later during his stay, he opened Secret Garden, a Korean restaurant, also in Beijing.

"Since the book was published in South Korea, I have received many e-mails from readers saying it helped them learn about China," Song said at his book's launch in Beijing last month.

"I think the Chinese version will also help Chinese people better understand Koreans who live in China."

He ventured to add: "I bet it's more interesting than a Korean TV series."

The book starts with the automobile trade between South Korea and China.

When Song first came to China in 1992, he found while traveling from Tianjin airport to Beijing by road that there were very few cars running on the wide highway.

"Why build highways when there are no cars?"－was his first impression of China.

At the time, China's automobile industry was nascent, with just 1 million cars on the road. But by 2014, the figure surged to more than 100 million.