Local residents mostly dress in dark-colored suits in the 1980s. Kerckhove poses in the China office for the Belgian company ACEC in Beijing in 1981. [Photo provided to China Daily]

As one of the earliest foreign businesspeople to venture into China after its opening-up, 68-year-old Belgian business strategist Gilbert van Kerckhove has not only witnessed, but also played an important part in, the country's tremendous transformation over the years.

Originally from Ghent in Belgium, where he got a master's degree in electronic engineering in 1973, Van Kerckhove has spent a big part of his life working for multinationals in foreign countries, including Brazil, Nigeria, Spain, Thailand and Myanmar.

Despite the discouragement and doubts expressed by his family and friends, who viewed China as a poor and unsafe country back then, Van Kerckhove accepted the task of setting up a China office for the Belgian company ACEC in Beijing in 1980.

"I did not plan to stay for so long. Then, one more year and one more year, and I am still here," he says in his home office in Beijing.

Since then, Van Kerckhove has lived on and off in China for more than 30 years, working mostly in Beijing, but also in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Even though he has worked in other countries in between, he always chose to come back to China, which he calls his "second home".

In his early years in China, he was involved in many major construction projects, such as Line 3 of Shanghai's subway and Jinmao Tower, one of the landmark skyscrapers in Shanghai, when he was the regional director of French company Alstom's East China branch.