Bill Brown served in the U.S. Air Force in Taiwan from 1976 to1978, never dreaming that in 1988 he and his family would becomeFujian's first foreign Permanent Resident.  He said he movedhere “Because Chinese food is too expensive in America.” Sincethen, Dr. Bill has eaten lots of Chinese food, and between mealshas taught MBA, written 10 books, dozens of articles, and written,produced or appeared in TV programs and documentaries. He alsoacted in 7 TV mini-series.  He says he’s a bad actor but sincehe always played a “bad guy”it did not matter. Premier Li Peng gaveBill the Friendship Award in 1993 and when asked his thoughts aboutBeijing, Dr. Bill said, “I like Beijing Duck.” After driving theirvan, “Toyota”, over 40,000 km around China in 1994 to Tibet andback, Bill and his family concluded there really is no place likehome－especially when that home is Xiamen!
潘維廉在1976至1978年間，效命于臺(tái)灣的美國空軍基地，那時(shí)的老潘還是個(gè)毛頭小伙兒，從不曾想過十年后自己一家會(huì)成為第一個(gè)在福建省取得永久居住權(quán)的老外。問其來華誘因，答曰：“美國中餐太貴�！边@些年來，老潘已“饕餮”了各式佳肴美味。大快朵頤之余，亦傳道授業(yè)解惑于廈大MBA中心，還得暇搖搖筆桿，先后撰寫了10本書和很多的文章，還撰寫、制作、拍攝了不少電視紀(jì)錄片。老潘還在7部電影、電視劇中出演了許多角色。他說自己演技較壞，不過演的也全是“壞蛋”，所以并無大礙。 1993年，李鵬總理授予老潘國家“友誼獎(jiǎng)”。問及其對(duì)北京的印象，他說：“我愛北京烤鴨�！�1994年，老潘率合家老幼驅(qū)車４萬公里幾乎踏遍中國，以廈門為起點(diǎn)，直抵西藏后返回。經(jīng)此跋涉，老潘一家深悟：“世上只有家最好”，更何況，這個(gè)“家”就是廈門！