MCDONELL: Zhang Yue’s company is called Broad and we’re taken on a tour of the headquarters, known as “Broad Town”. This is not your average factory complex. The grounds include a massive replica of a French Chateau designed by Zhang Yue’s wife and a giant gold pyramid which is apparently going to be used as a museum to introduce visitors to the philosophy of Chairman Zhang Yue.

TOUR GUIDE: “He invented all the products at Broad Group. He’s the key engineer for all the designs and he’s an inspirational person. Everyone around him has learnt a lot”.

MCDONELL: Zhang Yue’s personal fortune of an estimated $850 million originally came from making diesel and gas powered air conditioners. These days he presents himself as a Buddhist green businessman on a mission. He says he never uses a computer.

ZHANG YUE: “Personal wealth means nothing in my life. If it does still have meaning it’s in my work. I can use money to invest in research and development for something that society needs – but for me and my family… really wealth means nothing”.

MCDONELL: Money may mean nothing to Zhang Yue but he looks set to make a whole lot more of it. His plan is to roll out building component factories first across China, then other countries, including Australia. And he’s not short of belief in the potential of this technology which he calls ‘civilised construction’.

“In the future, if I come back here to see your company, in say ten years time - how big will it be?”

ZHANG YUE: “The biggest in the world, I’m sure of this. Take it down. I am sure. Ours will be the biggest in the world”.

MCDONELL: China’s mad rush to urbanisation is responsible for producing a fair swag of the country’s wealthy elite. Infrastructure, iron and steel have been big earners and anyone who makes anything to do with homes and offices remains in the box seat. In the capital Beijing, there’s one company that’s transformed the very appearance of the city.

ZHANG XIN: “We’re lucky you know as a developer… we’re talking about Beijing being built, urbanised in 15 years”.

MCDONELL: Zhang Xin is the CEO of Soho China. As a teenager she fled the cultural revolution to work in a Hong Kong factory. She studied in Cambridge, became an investment banker and returned to China in the 1990s to try her hand at property developing. She remembers the early discussions with government officials about what Beijing was going to be like.