Nowadays, Caterpillar has 17 manufacturing plants and 9 new plants under construction in China, most of which will go into operation in the near future. In addition, it also has four R&D centers and three logistics and parts centers in China.

In 1978, Caterpillar, the world's largest construction and mining equipment manufacturer, set up its first office in China.

But even those people, who made this brave and wise decision for Caterpillar, couldn't have imagined that 30 year later China would boast the world's biggest market for machinery equipment, or that China would become Caterpillar's second most important market, only after its home country, the United States.

Group President Richard Lavin, who joined Caterpillar in 1984, told Xinhua in a recent interview in Hong Kong that the reason Caterpillar entered in 1978 was because they had recognized China would be a very significant market.

Before that, in 1975, Caterpillar had made its first sale of 38 pipe layers to China through Hong Kong companies. It was among the first batch of U.S. manufacturers to enter the Chinese mainland market.

And today, the Chinese market is important simply because of its size. If Caterpillar wants to be the global industry leader in infrastructure equipment, it has to be leader in China, Lavin said.