Though 19 years have passed since late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping resided in the Guangzhou White Swan Hotel's presidential suite in 1985, Henry Ying Tung Fok, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), still remembered Deng's comments on the hotel in which Fok had invested: "White Swan Hotel,good!"

In a special column opened by Ta Kung Pao Wednesday for marking the 100th birth anniversary of Deng Xiaoping, Henry Ying Tung Fok recalled his over a dozen of meetings with Deng.

Fok is one of the persons who met Deng Xiaoping most frequently.

Fok said that as early as 1980, when many people still regarded the reform and opening up drive initiated by Deng Xiaoping as merely a slogan, Fok began to responded to the policy by launching major investment projects in his home town Guangdong.

Fok invested a huge sum in building the Chongshan Hot Spring Gulf Club, the first Chinese mainland-overseas cooperatively run tourism venture.

The club, a four-star hotel which went into formal operation in 1980, has received Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zeming and some other Chinese leaders who made a special trip to there for confirming Fok's contribution to supporting the reform and opening up drive.

Fok said that the hotel was scheduled to open on Dec. 8, 1980, but the 100,000 pieces of hotel tableware were on its way to Guangzhou from the United States five weeks before its opening. Provincial leaders persuaded him to delay the opening of the hotel but he instead on issuing the invitations as schedule.

He offered bonus, rarely seen in the Chinese mainland at that time, for workers who were required to extend their work hours to ensure the opening of the hotel on time.

Fok recalled that Deng Xiaoping went to his Chongshan Hot Spring Hotel in 1984 when traffic was not convenient then. Apart from the Beijing-Guangzhou journey, Deng took a ferry boat from Guangzhou to Tangjiawan and then went to his hotel in Zhongshan by car.

He remembered that during Deng's stay in the hotel, Deng was so excited that he said loudly when he tasted a bread at a breakfast,"This is a French bread!"

At that time, the wheat grown in the Chinese mainland was not as good as that of grown in France. The hotel imported the wheat from other countries and made delicious bread which attracted many customers. Some of the customers even brought back bread back to Guangzhou and Shanghai.

The price of the hotel's bread was 10 times the ordinary one at that time and it was still very popular. The selling of the bread at a high price also broke the price limits at that time.

In March 1985, the first Chinese mainland-overseas cooperatively run White Swan Hotel opened in Guangzhou. It is Fok's further practice of the policy of reform and opening to the
outside world initiated by Deng.

At that time, ordinary Chinese residents would feel uneasy to visit any five-star hotels. The White Swan Hotel welcomed any visitors to go there and pose for their pictures there, implementing a real "opening door to the outside world" policy.

The prices paid by Fok for its opening-up policy on the opening day of the hotel is that 400 rolls of toilet papers were used out, still a record for the hotel.

The White Swan Hotel has received Deng Xiaoping three times and over 40 heads of state and government from foreign countries.

Fok remembered that in 1985, Deng visited Guangzhou again and stayed in the White Swan Hotel. Facing the Pearl River, Deng Xiaoping made decisions on the opening up of the coastal and bordering cities following the opening up of 14 coastal cities in the Pearl River Delta Region and the Yangtze River Delta Region.