At that time, the Swiss Schindler was already the world's second largest elevator company. Uli Sigg, who was in his early thirties, was the representative of the company in China. Being quite optimistic about China's potential elevator market and geographical advantages, he facilitated the birth of the joint venture between Schindler Group and Chinese side.

In 1980, China Schindler was established in Beijing as the first industrial joint venture in China. The third person from right is Uli Sigg, the largest collector of Chinese contemporary art and former Swiss Ambassador to China. He joined Schindler in 1977 and facilitated the birth of the joint venture. He was also the general representative of the Swiss Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

However, many people thought Uli was insane to carry a Sino-foreign project out in China, as it was then an adventurous idea to involve foreigners in China's reform and opening up. However, Uli persuaded the Chinese government with an adventurous spirit that the market economy had its own advantages.

Uli was personally responsible for negotiations with the Chinese side, which were conducted in Beijing. In the course of promoting this joint venture project, Uli had to fly 18 hours to Beijing and stay in China for two or three weeks at a time. In each negotiation, there was a Chinese delegation of more than 25 people who would smoke during discussion to seek consensus. Every time he left China, he would wait until the aircraft door closed to breathe a sigh of relief, because he could be called back at any time to continue negotiating non-agreed issues before boarding.

On March 19, 1980, the China Construction Machinery Corporation, Swiss Schindler and Hong Kong Jardine Schindler signed a joint venture agreement in Beijing.