Was I told not to go? By almost everyone I met!

Was I warned about the dangers of being a conspicuously single American woman among 1.5 billion Chinese? Absolutely!

Was I emphatically told that a woman could never succeed in business there? Repeatedly!

Like everything in Wendy Basey’s cavalier, unconventional life, deciding to put her story to the page was a “Why Not?” proposition. She knew that, while her story was one-of-a-kind, her audience was infinite. Women finding success in unexpected places was always a popular subject for other females seeking validation for their own aspirations. And not to mention – it makes for a dynamite story!

China 1992: I stood before the border guards, their AK-47s at the ready, dressed in a skirt, briefcase in hand—and thank God no heels. But nothing, not even a six-foot fence was going to stop me. So, I climbed. I went up and over, dropping down on the other side, heart pounding, and kept moving toward the big black limo with the red flags flying, hoping I wouldn’t be shot—though there was no guarantee.