Norwich is not often thought of as a wine exporting city, just as the Chinese are not considered wine buffs. However, one city entrepreneur could be about to change this.

Tak-Man Li, 40, former owner of the Hong Kong Restaurant on Prince of Wales Road, set up the company, Laurel International, 18 months ago and has since dispatched containers of nearly 10,000 bottles to China on several occasions.

Mr Li lives with his wife and three young children in Eaton, and stood as a Conservative candidate in the Town Close ward in the recent council elections. He decided to change his career after about 20 years working at the restaurant so he could spend more time with his family.

He said: "I have worked in restaurants since I was 17 and now I have a young family I decided I wanted to spend a bit more time with them and do something different.

"In restaurants you spend all the time at work without seeing your loved ones.

"I have a background in wine through running the restaurant, where I was dealing with wine every day. A former colleague of mine, Tony Binhai Wang, said we should go into China, so the torch was lit."

Mr Li's parents came to Norwich from Hong Kong in the 1960s, and his late father Lam Mui Li set up the Hong Kong Takeaway on Unthank Road before establishing the Prince of Wales restaurant in 1974.

And it is clear the entrepreneurial spirit has been passed down to Mr Li, who sourced his wine from the Languedoc region of France, designed the labels and sold it through his business partner in Shanghai.

Mainly aimed at restaurants and hotels, with some bottles sold to the Ramada hotel chain, Mr Li said sales were going well, and said wine was increasing in popularity in China.

He added: "It's growing. In China they like anything Western. They are mainly rice wine drinkers, or beer or spirits drinkers.

Now because of the Western influences they have aspirations for Western products. They want all designer labels.

"More people also want to drink wine because it is perceived as healthier, because it is only about 14pc alcohol, whereas the rice wines they drink are fortified and the spirits are about 40pc."