THE city of Taicang in Jiangsu Province prides itself on a long history that saw it emerge as a significant farm granary in the 1st century and the homeport of the famous seafaring explorer Zheng He in the 15th century.

The farms have largely receded with urbanization, the once picturesque harbor has been expanded into a large container-shipping port and one of the modern "heroes" of Taicang's development comes in the unlikely form of a factory manager.

Xia Yuanhai, 52, isn't a swashbuckling sea captain like Zheng, who discovered the Horn of Africa for China. In fact, he calls himself a "sea turtle" - a term used to describe young Chinese who studied overseas but decided to return to China instead of remaining abroad to seek their fortunes.

In a sense, Xia "discovered" Taicang for the Germans. He studied science and engineering in Germany after leaving his hometown in Shenyang in northeastern China. When he returned to China in the early 1990s, he was hired by Tox Pressotechnik, the German-based company specializing in press drive systems and sheet metal joining, to find a base for the firm's first investment in China.

Taicang wasn't on his top list of possible locations.

"It was not an industrialized city; it was small and unknown," he said. "As a matter of fact, I saw farmland and nothing but farmland."

Xia visited many bigger Chinese cities, such as Shenyang, Dalian and Tianjin, but all he got was the cold shoulder.

"Tox's first investment was only 250,000 Deutsche marks (about US$158,000), to sort of test the waters," he said. "I guess that was considered peanuts in those big cities. Too small to be bothered with."

A small fry made firm welcome

Taicang, however, was grateful for investment of any amount.

"We felt valued and taken care of," Xia said. "In just one week, the local government helped Tox get a business license. My German boss signed the contract without knowing any Chinese. It was mutual trust from the start."

Xia is now general manager for Tox China and has been living in Taicang for almost two decades.

The company's success here has helped etch the city into the German investment psyche. As China's economic reforms opened the country up wider to foreign investors, German companies flocked to Taicang.

Taicang today proudly calls itself a "town of German enterprises." It is home to more than 160 German companies and factories producing precision instruments and machines. That number is expected to grow to 200 by the end of this year.

"The company and I have grown up with the city, watching it develop from a desolate town with nothing but farmland two decades ago to a vital port city in the Yangtze River Delta," Xia said.

In that time, Tox China has expanded from a 260-square-meter somewhat shabby factory employing nine people to a global leader with an annual sales of more than 200 million yuan (US$31.6 million). Its production site now covers more than 35,000 square meters in the Taicang Economic and Technological Development Zone. Its investment has grown to 10 million euros (US$12.73 million).

The city is constructing the Sino-German SME Business Collaboration Demonstration Park as a testament to its close ties with Europe's premier machinery manufacturing nation.

Registered foreign investment in the city this year has already reached US$550 million. Among the newer manufacturers are Vast Great, Hao Cheng Optical and Tiger Coatings.

"The way I see it," said Xia, "the convenient transport to Shanghai and the Yangtze River port, Taicang's hospitable people and the high efficiency of the labor force are the big reasons why industry is attracted here."

Xia, a normally taciturn man, hasn't lost any of his enthusiasm for his work.

"The Tox technique is used to join different materials without doing damage to the services," he said as he fed two metal sheets into a large joining machine. "This is how a Tox joint is formed: penetration, interlock formation of punch side sheet metal and, voila! It's completed in just three seconds. During the whole process, no rivets are needed."

This patented technology accounts for more than 80 percent of the market, with applications across a spectrum of industries, including computers, washing machines, television sets, automobiles and air conditioners.

Xia said the road to success was a bumpy one at the start. Back in 1993, when the first Tox factory was built, there was a severe shortage of industrial materials.

To buy screws and nuts, Xia and a German colleague had to drive more than two hours to Shanghai. "There were no major highways at that time, and the road conditions were poor," he said.

Cultural complications at first

Cultural differences were also a big hurdle. Germans working at the company insisted upon opening a coffee corner in the middle of the 260-square-meter factory, and 9am was set aside as a sacred time for coffee breaks.

"Because I had been in Germany for many years, I could understand why they wanted their morning coffee break, but the Chinese employees couldn't," Xia recalled. "It caused big fights."

The Germans could be blunt and exacting. They were greatly shocked at the messiness of electric wirings in control cabinets. A German mechanic once shouted angrily at Xia, "In a German control cabinet, wires are extremely neat and put in such a strict order that even an idiot wouldn't get hurt when touching them."

Then there was the time when a Chinese-made plug fell apart when it hit the ground. The Germans brought out a plug from home and hit it with a hammer. "This is what a quality plug is supposed to be," they said, holding up the intact plug for the Chinese to see.

The Germans wanted to stop the project and withdraw their investments. Xia stood firm. He wrote a long letter to German headquarters, asking for more time and fuller authority over the China office.

"China was just at a very special juncture at that time," he wrote to his German bosses. "Having been isolated from the world for so many years, the nation isn't accustomed to modern practices. What we need is patience and tolerance, and we will catch up quickly. We will make plugs as tough as those in Germany, and our control cabinets will be neat and clean."

His tactic worked. By 1997, Tox China was on track and the company expanded its factory to 20,000 square meters. "We have been expanding every year since," Xia said.

Germans who work in Taicang would find some of the same ambience as their homes, an atmosphere of a peaceful European town, with lush trees and clean roads.

"It's a nice place to live and work," said Xia Yuanfeng, director of the Taicang Economic and Technological Development Zone. The two Xias are not related. "The factories here are all eco-friendly and technology-intensive. The city has managed to cultivate greenness and cleanness. That's what makes Germans feel at home."

Shanghai Daily: What have you achieved during the past decade?

Xia Yuanhai: I've assembled a good team and made close friends in Taicang. I've built a career that I will devote my life to. I think it was a wise choice to return to China when I did and grow with my nation as it modernizes.

SD: How do you see the future?

Xia: With our team's efforts, the company can be the No.1 in the world.

SD: What's your biggest concern?

Xia: I like Taicang. It has been my second home. My whole family has moved here. On one hand, I would like to see it someday become a big city like Shanghai, but on the other, I wish it could keep its slow, quiet pace forever.