On March 2, 2015, Prince William the Duke of Cambridge arrived in the Long Museum of Shanghai and participated in the initiating ceremony of the GREAT Festival of Creativity.

As the highest level of the UK royal family's visits to China over nearly 30 years, Prince William's ongoing trip to China for the first time attracted much attention.

The Paper noted that on March 2, Prince William was first accepted by President of China Xi Jinping in Beijing. Shortly afterwards, he flew to Shanghai to had intimate tête-a-têtes with China's "most popular" entrepreneurs Jack Ma, Chairman of the Board in Alibaba, Wang Jianlin, Chairman of Wanda Group, and Yuan Yafei, Chairman of Sanpower who had newly acquired the UK's time-honoured department store House of Fraser, thereby quickly setting up his circle of Chinese friends with the three tycoons as the core.

Prince: why Jack Ma invests in football?

On the afternoon of March 2, Prince William flew nonstop to Shanghai after "chatting about football" with Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Prince William turned up at the Long Museum of Shanghai to kick-start the GREAT Festival of Creativity in person, and met with some of his Chinese friends. Among them was Yuan Yafei, Chairman of Sanpower Group and the well-known hostess Chen Luyu, together with Jack Ma, Wang Jianlin and his wife Lin Ning. Wanda Group and Sanpower Group were the only two Chinese sponsors of the Festival.

At about 18:45, Prince William met with Jack Ma, asking whether his business was faring well.

Currently, Tmall is launching the "UK Week" campaign, with over 130 British brands sold on-line, many of which are royal brands.

How can UK brands enter China? How can China's brands be sold to the UK? This topic also tallies with Ali's strategic goal of internationalisation after it was listed in the USA, and Ma was very happy to discuss this topic with the prince.

Ma introduced to Prince the operation of British brands on Tmall, highlighting Chinese people's passion for products from the UK.

In addition to commerce, the 20-minute chat still centred more on Prince William's favourite – football.

"Jack, why have you invested in football?” Prince William asked.

"Well, as there are many only children in China, developing football can better cultivate their team spirit.” Jack Ma explained.

Last June, Alibaba invested 1.2 billion yuan in Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club, acquiring 50 percent of the Club's shares. Jack Ma has, therefore, became its half owner.

It remains to be seen whether Ma will find opportunities to invest in the UK's football club?

Recently, the country is buzzing with the topic of smog; as Chairman of the Nature Conservancy (TNC) in China, Jack Ma also expressed his views in this connection with the Prince.

Wang Jianlin was present in the meeting with his wife

Football was also an indispensable topic between Prince William and Wang Jianlin.

Compared with Jack Ma, Wang took a stronger and more internationalised posture in his investment in football. On January 21 this year, Wang declared that Wanda Group bought 20% stake of La Liga team Atletico de Madrid at 45 million euros. This was a bombshell the China's magnate had cast to the football field.

As early as three years ago, Wanda Group has signed with Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Villarreal to select China's footstars to study in Spain.

Wang introduced to William Wanda Group's investment projects in the UK and its future internationalisation strategy, which Prince William appreciated deeply and welcomed Wanda's investments in the UK. Besides, he also discussed Sino-British cooperation in areas such as films, entertainment, football, etc. with Wang.

Wang has been harbouring true affection towards the UK. Back in 2013, he has announced an investment of 1 billion pound to build a five-star hotel complex in the core area of London and buy the UK's Sunseeker yacht company. At the Davos Forum 2014, Mr Wang and Mr Cameron jointly announced that Wanda would invest 2 billion ~3 billion pounds in the the urban renewal program in the UK.

The Prince invited Yuan Yafei to get a glimpse of wild elephants in Yunnan

When it came to overseas acquisitions, Yuan Yafei, Chairman of Sanpower Group, was by all means the cynosure of the meeting. At the very night, Prince William also met with Yuan Yafei. Yuan founded the Sanpower Group, which spent 155 million pounds (about 1.6 billion yuan)  buying 89% stake of the UK's time-honoured department store House of Fraser (hereinafter referred to as HOF) in 2014. The department store boasts the commendation and authorisation from the British royal family, whose members frequently shop here. Sanpower Group wanted to wholly acquire HOF, but some UK magnate, who owns 11% of HOF's shares and is also boss of a football club in the UK, resolutely refused to sell the stake.

Related personnel in Sanpower Group revealed that Prince William spoke highly of Sanpower's acquisition of HOF, and meanwhile congratulated HOF for creating record high sales within 165 years after being bought by Sanpower.

In addition, Prince William also invited Yuan Yafei and HOF's British executives to visit the Wild Elephant Valley in Xishuangbanna of Yunnan to get a glimpse of wild elephants. Of course, the prince also talked about football with Yuan Yafei! Therefore, just as a football is round, so Prince William's circle of friends in China seems to be also a round circle of football fans.

Jack Ma, Wang Jianlin and Yuan Yafei are big shots who now take turns to be China's richest man. However, you could not be more wrong if you think the Prince came to China only to make friends with the richest men. Prince William also met the well-known hostess Chen Luyu.

After reading this article, you will know that be he president or tycoon or prince, everyone loves football!