Chen Guangbiao, a renowned Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist, writes wishes for the Pingtan Times, a local newspaper, on July 6.

Chen Guangbiao, a renowned Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist, made his first trip to Pingtan county, East China's Fujian province, on July 6 to investigate its development prospects.

The concept of building an ecological, livable island echoes Chen's campaign of green energy growth, said Chen, who is the head of Jiangsu Huangpu Recycling Resources Ltd.

"Hopefully I can use my clout in environmental protection and my resources to gather more big entrepreneurs to invest in Pingtan," said Chen.

Although it is his first trip to East China's island county, Chen said he began paying attention to Pingtan's development three years ago, when the nation decided to make Pingtan an economic pilot zone to Taiwan.

"Three years ago Pingtan was a small island that no one heard of. But I am very surprised at how it has transformed to what it is now. I hope that it will become another Hong Kong or Shenzhen as the momentum keeps up."

The brisk investigation has left Chen with a deep impression of Pingtan's development plan in the fields of tourism and high-tech enterprises, which, in his words, is "of long term significance" and "close to the international pattern". He also vows to pay more business visits to Pingtan with more entrepreneurs from across the Taiwan Straits.

Dubbed as China's top philanthropist, Chen expressed a strong desire to engage in Pingtan's philanthropy. He called for establishing a charity association where entrepreneurs can donate to poor people and the environmental protection sector.

"Once the association comes into being, please do invite me. I would like to be the first one to make a donation," said Chen.

Pingtan has been making big strides in development after three years of construction. It seeks to become a cross-Straits logistics hub, said Gong Qinggai, director of the Pingtan administrative committee. He added that Chen sets a good example of social responsibility for many entrepreneurs and he hopes Chen can make contributions to cross-Straits communication.