When British Prime Minister David Cameron stepped off the plane in Beijing yesterday, he was taking a step closer to his family history.
Cameron's great-grandfather Ewen Allan Cameron was born in Shanghai in 1879, and his family has close links to the early development of the region's international financial industry.
His great-great-grandfather - also called Ewen - was manager of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank's branch in the city at the time, a post he filled until 1890, when he became director of the bank's London office. He was knighted in 1901.
Ewen Cameron (1841-1908) had risen from humble origins as the son of a farmer near Inverness, in the north of Scotland. He moved to Hong Kong with the Bank of Hindustan in 1866, moving to HSBC (itself established just the previous year) when his employers went into liquidation shortly afterwards.
Another of the British prime minister's great-great-grandfathers, Emile Levita (1828-1909) - a German Jew and naturalised British citizen - served as director of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, which would eventually become Standard Chartered.
Cameron has frequently come under fire at home for his privileged background, his family connections to the aristocracy and rumours about the size of his personal wealth.