"I have a real connection with Shandong province," said Lim Chuan-boon, a Malaysian investor who works in Shandong, during a recent interview.

[Video/Dazhong News]

After completing the Malay translation of the famous classic Chinese novel Water Margin in 1996, Lim, the Chinese translator in Malaysia, wanted to visit the place where the story took place.

At that time, although China and Malaysia had established diplomatic ties, there was no easy way for the people of the two countries to communicate.

More than 10 years later, Lim, who took charge of the Chinese investment business of a Malaysian enterprise, finally got to work in Shandong, his long-coveted province.

Besides his hometown of Fujian, Shandong was the first place Lim learned about in China.

"In Malaysia, wherever Chinese is spoken, there is Confucian influence," said Lim, adding that the family teachings of overseas Chinese in Malaysia are basically derived from the thought of family education in Confucian culture.

"The overseas Chinese in Malaysia all respect Confucius, know Shandong, and embrace Shandong's traditional culture," said Lim.

When Lim was young, his impression of Shandong came from the stories of swordsman in comic strips. He said: "At that time, I felt that the Shandong people were straightforward and ideal friends."

In 2010, Lim visited Shandong for the first time. His friends in Jinan welcomed him warmly and helped him recruit his company's first Shandong employee.

In May of the same year, Lim and the government of Qihe county in Dezhou signed a contract to invest and construct the ecotourism development project.

For more than 10 years, Lim dutifully promoted economic and trade exchanges between Shandong and ASEAN countries.

According to Dezhou customs statistics, from January to November this year, Dezhou's imports and exports to ASEAN reached 6.45 billion yuan ($1.01 billion).