The first time I met Bertrand Marc Allen was at Beijing Airshowin 2011 September - six months after he came to China and two months after I started to cover the civil aviation industry.

After the 30minutes of questions and answers, Allen asked me what my view of the air show had been. "Were there any differences between this one and the Zhuhai airshow?"

As a greenhorn in civil aviation reporting at the time, I did not know how to answer the question, but I sensed his eagerness to learn more about China and the aviation industry here.