Irishman enjoying slice of the high life in China

WILD GEESE/Aidan Duffy General manager, the Chang'an Club, Beijing:THE ATMOSPHERE is hushed in the dining room of China's most exclusive club, the Chang'an Club at the heart of the capital Beijing.

White-jacketed waiters swish past under the appraising eye of general manager Aidan Duffy, who has run the club since 2006.

“I never imagined I’d end up working in the Far East, not in my wildest dreams,” says Duffy (42) from Drumlosh near Athlone. “I started out working as a trainee manager in the Prince of Wales Hotel in Athlone. I came up the old-school way.”

We meet at the ground floor where the gold copy of the last emperor’s throne from the Forbidden City leaves you in no doubt that this is a luxurious set-up.

Duffy left Ireland in the late 1980s for Windermere in the north of England, where he worked for what was then the Trusthouse Forte chain of hotels.

“My boss in Ireland knew I had an opportunity at Trust House Forte and he told me to get on the boat. I wasn’t pressurised and it wasn’t financial; it’s just that in those days everyone was going to England,” he says.

Starting as a junior manager, he moved swiftly through the ranks until he was appointed assistant manager food and beverage at the Cavendish of Jermyn Street, home to some of London’s finest tailors and shoemakers.

Duffy has retained an interest in elegant clothing and he cuts a dapper figure – he has to, as the Chang’an Club is as exclusive as it gets. It was set up in 1995 by Chan Lai Wah of the Hong Kong-based Fu Wah International Group, who was China’s wealthiest woman in the Forbes Rich List in 2001.

While its membership list is secret, it is known to include the Communist Party and private business elite. Among those linked to the club are Microsoft, Dow Chemicals, Jiang Zemin and the Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei.

The club has 950 family members and annual membership runs at about 150,000 yuan (€17,500) for an individual membership. The membership is 95 per cent Chinese, with the remaining membership made up of ambassadors and other senior foreign figures living in China.

Before Asia, Duffy headed for the Caribbean. An opportunity arose via an Irish colleague to work in Anguilla in the British Virgin Islands. When it failed to materialise after his work permit didn’t come through, he moved instead to Curaçao off the coast of Venezuela, working as food and beverage manager of a casino hotel for three years.

“Then the guy who offered me the job in Anguilla asked me to come and work in Asia,” says Duffy.

He then spent nearly nine years in Taiwan, in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taipei, running a variety of bankers and mercantile clubs.

Taiwan is still very close to Duffy’s heart and many of his Chinese friends are in Taiwan.

“I set up my own business. We were ahead of our time in opening a fine dining restaurant, but the concept and style was not appreciated by the local community, so I went back to Hong Kong right in the middle of the Sars crisis in April 2003,” he says.

He worked at the United Services Recreation Club in Hong Kong for a year and then went to Jakarta for a two-year stint.

“Then the job here at the Chang’an Club came up and to be honest, I grabbed it. It’s such a high-profile job and such an exciting city. This was 2006, just before the Olympics, and I wanted to be part of it,” he says.

Among the other projects on which he is working with the Chang’an group is the Heritage Club in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, a vast area of grasslands which is becoming popular as a rugged tourist venue with Chinese travellers.

Running is Duffy’s passion and he has completed a number of marathons, recently completing the half-marathon on the Great Wall.

Ireland remains on his mind. He attends events at the Irish embassy and has started to hold a St Patrick’s Day celebration at the club for Irish expats.

“I call both home – Asia and Ireland. I go home at least once a year and my mother and brothers and sisters are there,” he says.

“As far as the downturn at home goes, the signposts were there for at least a decade, and you could see it going back, but I think blaming the Government can only go so far. People have to take responsibility,” he says.

He hopes to return to Ireland eventually, but for the time being, he is hooked on the possibilities China has to offer, in all areas from his own business to the education sector – he sees a strong demand for native English teachers now, for example.

“There are opportunities over here in Asia. The economy is booming in China, the people are excited about the potential.”