居蓉13年：歪果仁也变成“中国通” | Foreigner Turned True "China Hand"

当成都弄潮儿从春熙路转战太古里，移动支付成为生活必备，成都地铁开行10号线……才发现时间悄然在溜走。今天小布想和你穿越过往十年，一起听成都麦克斯林房地产创始人Peter Kuppens居蓉13年的故事。

When Chengdu's trendsetters migrated from Chunxi Road down couple blocks to Taikoo Li, when mobile payment became a daily necessity, when the Chengdu Metro network expanded to its Line 10...these are reminders of how time flew by. Today, we want to take you back to a decade ago, meet Peter Kuppens, the founder of Chengdu Maxxelli Property, and listen to his story of 13 years of residence in Chengdu.

Peter Kuppens

荷兰人

2005年来蓉，2006年创立成都麦克斯林房地产经纪有限公司，公司目前已在中国25个城市设立办公点。他于1998年首次来华。

Peter Kuppens, Dutch, came to the City of Hibiscus in 2005 and founded Chengdu Maxxelli Property Realtor Co., Ltd. in 2006. The company has since then extended its reach and set up offices in 25 cities across China. He came to China for the first time in 1998.

在成都的涉外圈，“麦克斯林的Peter”是名副其实的“中国通”，但形式上却并没有入乡随俗——不打麻将、不喝白酒、中文不溜，与人相处时保有明显的界限感。

In Chengdu's foreign-related circles,"Peter Kuppens from Maxxelli" is well known. A truly "China Hand" as he might be called, Peter doesn't observe the Chengdu customs somuch - never playing mahjong or drinking liquor, he can't speak fluent Chinese and maintains a clear sense of boundary in interpersonal communication.

个人如此怡然任性，是因为成都给了他创立公司的市场机遇；公司十多年来蓬勃发展，不断与本地市场博弈融合，也反过来成为促进成都愈发包容和国际化的万千推力之一。

His light-hearted and leisure mood can be attributed to the market opportunity he has grasped to set up a company in Chengdu. And his firm has been thriving for more than ten years, continuously competing and finally integrated with the local market. In return, it has become one of the countless momentum factors driving Chengdu to be more inclusive and international.

居成都，链接全国

Locating in Chengdu while Connecting with the Whole China

1998年冬天，Peter第一次来到中国。“那时的成都都是些木房子，大概三米高。商铺打烊后，得用一块块长长的木板把门封住，几乎没看到什么卷帘门。”那时仅有少许酒店允许外宾入住，“上网搜索太慢，得查十分钟。”最后，Peter通过厚厚的旅游黄页找到了成都交通饭店。

In the winter of 1998, Peter came to Chinafor the first time. "In Chengdu back then, there were many wooden houses,about three meters high. To close the shop, the shopkeepers had to use a long piece of wood to seal the door, and shutter doors could rarely be found," "Onlya few hotels accommodated foreign guests back then," "The internet search was too slow, and it took ten minutes to check some simple entries." On that condition, Peter finally found the Chengdu Traffic Hotel through thick Yellow Pages.

但也因为这次遇见，他喜欢上了这个城市。2005年，Peter返蓉，次年创立麦克斯林，公司发展的起点是为高端涉外群体“定制”租房，其中一个工作内容还有“对外国人进行本地文化普及”。当时，为打造更“国际化”的宜居空间，Peter与团队还自己找设计及装修公司合作，引导房东改装清水房。

It was because of this encounter that he came to fall in love with the city. In 2005, Peter returned to Chengdu and in the following year founded Maxxelli, driven by the goal of providing "customized" rental properties to Chengdu's upscale foreign-related circles. One of his tasks was to "popularize local culture amongforeigners ". At that time, in order to create a more international livable space, Peter and his team also sought out design and decoration companies for cooperation and guided the landlords to refit their non-decorated houses.

十多年来，巨变就在身边。随着城市国际化程度的不断加深，前来成都的外籍人群不断增加，但全球化带来的文化差异却不断减少，面向在蓉外国人的服务市场的参与者越来越多，“蛋糕”随之变小。作为成都国际市场的资深参与者，Peter却并不慌乱，因为随着成都市场的蓬勃发展，麦克斯林服务的房产类客群已由外国人转为中国人。前不久，Airbnb中国西区市场总经理还告诉Peter，麦克斯林的置业在Airbnb上的收入达到了区域最高。

For over a decade, monumental changes have taken place all around him. As the city's level of internationalization continues to elevate, the number of foreigners that come to Chengdu also rose in tandem. On the other hand, cultural differences brought about by globalization have reduced, and there is an increasing number of market participants seeking to offer services to foreigners in Chengdu, thus the "pie" has become smaller. However, as a veteran in Chengdu's international market,Peter is as calm as before because following the robust development of the Chengdu market, Maxxelli's housing property clientele has switched from foreigners to Chinese. Not long ago, the General Manager for Marketing at Airbnb's Western China Region even told Peter that Maxxelli properties ranked first in the region in terms of income generated on Airbnb.

从中国，博弈全球

Starting from China then Going Global

Peter感慨，这些年来，以商业角度而言，成都变化最大的是市场更加多元、竞争更加激烈，但“环境也更公平，更标准化了。”这也成为麦克斯林得以拳脚大展的重要机遇。如最初选择成都一样，Perer自信不减：“立足成都，却不止步成都。如今的麦克斯林为外来投资人在整个中国市场寻找并创造合作契机。”

Peter sighed with emotion that over the years, regarding business, the biggest change in Chengdu should be a more diversified and competitive market. Meanwhile, "the business environment is more fair and standardized" which has provided an important opportunity for Maxxelli to expand business. Just as how he felt when he first chose Chengdu, Peter is still confident, "Stand in Chengdu, but envision beyond the city. Today's Maxxelli is striving to seek for and create cooperation for foreign investorsin the Chinese market".

今天的麦克斯林已壮大为集团企业，拥有三家子公司，做安家置业、投资顾问、战略合作等业务，在成都，苹果公司、领事馆等企业和机构都是他们的客户。除成都外，旗下办公机构覆盖了中国主要二线城市，涉足房产、汽车、科技、石油、化工等许多领域。此外，深知了解本土文化能促发商机，麦克斯林每周至少举办一场中外主题交流活动。

The Maxxelli of today has grown into acorporation with three subsidiaries and engaged in a variety of fields such as home sales, investment consulting and strategic cooperation. Some of the company's customers in Chengdu include enterprises and organizations such as Apple Inc. and foreign consulates. In addition, believing that a grasp of localculture creates business opportunities, Maxxelli holds the themed Chinese-foreign interactions at least once in a week.

在麦克斯林成立当年，Peter还整理了一本名叫《Taxi-Book》的实用手册，巴掌大小、近300页，用中英文标注了成都的衣食住行资讯以及为合作伙伴订制的产品信息。手册每年更新。而随着时代发展，《Taxi-Book》也于2017年推出APP版，除了成都，还涵盖了北京、上海、广州在内共计45个中国城市的信息——通过网络彻底打破地域边界，为了吸引更多客户，麦克斯林如今面向全球推介中国城市。

In the year when Maxxelli was founded,Peter also compiled a practical handbook called Taxi-Book. The palm-sized bookhas nearly 300 pages. Its contents in Chinese and English include informationon Chengdu's food, clothing, living, transportation, and others as well as the product information specially-collected for partners. The handbook was updated every year. With the development of the times, Taxi-Book also launched its application version in 2017. In addition to Chengdu, it also covers the information of 45 Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou,completely breaking the border limit via the Internet. To attract more customers, Maxxelli is now introducing and promoting Chinese cities to the global community.

回归生活，Peter在市区的家离办公室很近，室内风格简约，墙上挂着的、厨房用的都是竹编簸箕，家里的电器设备则几乎被中国品牌“小米”承包了。“中国的创造力和消费力在明显提高，公司去年开始代理的一家比利时冰淇淋品牌，其主要受众群便是中国人。”Peter最爱的中国创造是淘宝，他说：“如果淘宝是个女人，我会娶她。”

Never missing any chance to enjoy daily life, Peter settled his house near his office in the downtown of Chengdu. The interior style is simple with bamboo-woven dustpans hanging on the wall as decoration or serving as kitchenware. Besides, almost all the household electrical equipment is Xiaomi, a local brand of China. “The creativity and consumption power of Chinese people have been significantly improving. Last year, our company became the agent for a Belgian ice-cream brand, and we found that its main target customers are Chinese." Peter's favorite "Create in China" is Taobao, and he admitted, "If Taobao were a woman, I would marry her."

让外国人在本地生活、工作如鱼得水，或许这才是一个城市国际化的真谛所在。

Empowering foreigners to live and work locally like a duck to water is perhaps the quintessence of a city's internationalization endeavor.

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摘自《HELLO Chengdu》杂志

Excerpted from HELLO Chengdu magazine

撰稿 | 刘昕怡

By Lenore Liu

编辑 | 北小花

Edited by Bei Xiaohua