Canada’s Luxurious Vancouver Mansion Has a Chinese Buyer: Rags To Riches Story Of A Former Duck Farmer

The rags to riches story of a Chinese entrepreneur is creating ripples in the Chinese media after the former brought a high profile Italianate mansion, in one of the largest luxury residential deals in Canada's Vancouver. In his 20 year journey from a humble duck farmer, the Chinese buyer got into many businesses and finally struck gold in real estate business. Since then, there was no looking back.

The Chinese media is abuzz with details of the buyer of a C$51.8-million Vancouver mansion. The reports carry a sense of awe and pride in the growth of the erstwhile duck farmer into the head of a successful conglomerate, who is now buying out palatial properties in Canada, reports National Post.

Businessman Chen Mailin and his Vancouver-based company Chunghwa Investment (Canada) Co. bought the 25,000-square-foot home in Point Grey. The 45-year-old businessman bought the sprawling Italianate mansion on 1.1 hactares for C$51.8 million, which is equivalent to US$40 million. The deal is noted for many counts-it is the sale of the most expensive home and also the single biggest residential transaction ever conducted in British Columbia.

The mansion was sold by former tech entrepreneur Don Mattrick, who is the CEO of San Francisco-based Zynga and his wife Nanon de Gaspe Beaubien-Mattrick, heiress to a Quebec telecom company.

Rags To Riches

Chinese language media outlets in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong heralded the news by highlighting life story, which started in the Pukou district of Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, near Shanghai. The South China Morning Post reported more details. Chen was born in 1969 and comes from a poor family. He could not finish high school and soon became a labourer and a factory worker later.

In 1992, Chen started a duck farm with his meagre savings. When that failed, he borrowed some money and started a hotel in 1996, which became a turning point in his life and helped him in taking up construction business and later to move into real estate development, in 2001.

Conglomerate

Today, Nanjing Dingye Investment Group builds skyscrapers and runs business divisions in property development, pharmaceuticals, hotel management and textiles. Chen is the company’s chairman. In Canada, Chen bought and sold many properties in Metro Vancouver. They include the $10.5-million Shaughnessy home at 1550 Laurier Ave. “In leading the company, Chen has insisted on pursuing the goal of achieving economic, social and environmental efficiency and giving back to communities,” says the Nanjing Dingye site, hailing the outlook of its founder.

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