During a trip to Beijing--with which brother of a classmate? Gung Gung traveled by train, first purchasing at Kelly & Walsh bookstore a Mandarin phrase book, but all he really learned to say was yi wan tang main ("a bowl of soup noodles"), which he figured was the most hygienic thing he could choose to eat.  

He met ???, a graduate of Ohio State and chemist who knew about aniline dyes for carpets, and also J.C. Liu, who was in his father’s Shandong lace business. Because of his more accessible character, Gung Gung eventually chose J.C. Liu as a business partner. Liu told him, “Don’t speak to me in your terrible Cantonese Mandarin”. He preferred to learn good American English from Gung Gung.

They would be partners for 40 years. Gung Gung helped get him to Hong Kong, and eventually helped his children get to Singapore and Thailand where they had businesses--the one in Thailand dealing in gem stones.  

Gung Gung first duty when arriving in Hong Kong would always be to visit J.C. Liu--until one visit when he learned he’d come too late and J.C. Liu had already died.
Although Albert remained closely involved with the Quon Mane business, run solely by his uncle after his father's death, well into the 1930s, he always dated the start of his own business to 1929 when he made his first trip to Beijing.
Also in this section: About the Stories | 1: Youngest Son’s Son | 2: Unwelcome Nephew | 3: Promising Student | 4: Marrying Material | 5: Ineligible Bachelor | 6: Reliable Associate | 7: Blameless Auntie