Speaking about his decision to settle in China, Spear says he wanted to come and live and work in China and be a part of the changes and reforms that were just getting started back then.

"My field at University of California, Berkeley, was Chinese politics," he says.

"I have never regretted my decision to leave academia. And my expatriate life in China has turned out, at least to me, to be an extraordinary adventure."

Spear's resort has also helped villages near Mutianyu become recognized as tourism destinations.

"We also preferentially employ local people," he says.

Sometimes visitors will tell Spear how lucky these villages are that he moved here and invested.

But he has a different perspective.

"I feel I am tremendously lucky that my neighbors allowed me and my family to live here," he says.

"I hope that in some small measure I have repaid their kindness and generosity."