GUANGZHOU, early November. I was attending an international oil and oil seeds conference, to better understand the dynamics of the world oil and oil seeds market and how it affects the palm oil industry in the short and medium term.

Besides taking the opportunity to feast on the world famous Guangzhoudim sum, I visited an interesting Hong Kong-listed Chinese company, Renhe Commercial Holdings Ltd.

On the advice of a taxi driver, I took the subway from the hotel to my meeting place to avoid the infamous Guangzhou peak hour traffic jam.

I got off at the wrong exit of the subway station – and later realised that Song Lei, the very courteous and energetic general manager of Renhe, had to walk about half a km from one end to the other end of Renhe's underground shopping mall to meet me.

Renhe is famous for its unique business of building and managing underground shopping malls throughout China. Although underground shopping malls are increasingly being built in cities such as Tokyo, Paris and Singapore as a means to maximise prime commercial land usage, in China it started with the objective of better utilising many of the not-so-well maintained underground civilian air defence bunkers.

China's government allows some of these civilian air defence bunkers to be converted for commercial use during peace time. It also gives incentives (including free land) to entrepreneurs to build new civilian air defence bunkers on condition that the government has the rights to use these facilities during war times.

There were a number of developers that seized on these opportunities; Renhe, started in 1992 by journalist turned property entrepreneurs, Xiuli Hawken and her brother Dai Yongge, seems to be the most successful. Within a short span of 17 years, they built Renhe into the largest privately-owned developer and operator of stand-alone underground wholesale apparels shopping malls in China.

Renhe's "The First Tunnel of Guangzhou" (their first major project outside of their home base of Harbin) is a 47,554 sq m, two-storey underground shopping mall (or about the size of two levels of KLCC Suria shopping centre in Kuala Lumpur).

It was the low season when I was there. Nevertheless, I still saw many shoppers, especially those from Europe, the Middle East and other fellow Asians. I was quite impressed with the huge and organised layout of the underground mall – it has more than 600 apparel wholesalers and retailers for products such as ladies and men’s fashion, children's wear, shoes and socks, with all the trimmings, plus eateries.

Renhe's malls are strategically located under busy commercial centres and next to transportation hubs (subway and bus stations). As such, Renhe's ability to construct these shopping malls cum air defence bunkers is one of its critical success factors.

Amazingly, above ground construction in this Guangzhou project was completed with minor disruptions to traffic in only 30 days; subsequently, the rest of the work was completed underground, all in about 10 months.

Given its impressive track record, Renhe has been able to secure more similar projects in many cities in China. Renhe is now a US$5bil Hong Kong-listed company. Xiuli Hawken and family, Renhe's founders, are listed as the 22nd richest in China, according to a Hurun survey in 2009.

The story of Renhe is but one of many such remarkable success stories in China. The bigger story of rising entrepreneurship in China has many more interesting facets. My personal observations include:

Spirit. China today offers great opportunities to entrepreneurs with the right business model to make it big. It is not surprising then that there is a rising Chinese entrepreneurial spirit that is best described as "Anything is possible" (an actual slogan from Chinese athletic sports brand Li Ning, another successful Chinese company by 6-time Olympic gold medalist gymnast and now entrepreneur Li Ning). It is also this entrepreneurial spirit that is driving China’s economic growth and innovation.

People. Good people management, strong execution and implementation are keys to success. I understand that not all underground mall projects in China are as successful as Renhe's. In fact, I was told one similar project in Guangzhou by another developer had traffic disruptions in the busy commercial areas for more than two years.

Culture. China is a diverse country and adapting to local culture is crucial to success. Even Renhe encountered many challenges adapting to local culture with its Zhengzhou project, which it is now making good progress on.

I have no doubt some of these Chinese success stories, such as Renhe, will not only inspire local Chinese but also entrepreneurs all over the world, especially Asians with close links to China.

I believe it is important that one must be prepared to invest time and resources, in particular to understand the diverse culture of China. One must also be prepared to compete with a multitude of bright and inspired young people of China to be successful.

China is where huge opportunities exist for success; the question is – are you prepared to work for the rewards?