Some Chinese businesspeople who were in Houston to look at possible investment opportunities got a sense of the Lone Star State's culture, which included firing hundreds of bullets at a gun range.

For some among the group of 10 from Hefei, Anhui province, the flying shells and loud pops at the Top Gun indoor range was exhilarating.

"It feels so invigorating to fire bullets at will," said Tu Runqiu, who said he had attended a military academy in China.

"I am no stranger to guns, but even at the military academy, I did not get to fire this many shots. Bullets were expensive and we were allowed to fire 20 shots at most during one session of training. I probably fired more than 100 shots tonight. It feels so thrilling," he said about the exercise at the range on May 19.

Real estate developer America Modern Green invited the group to Houston to tour its $300 million Ivy District, a multi-use residential community under development. Gavin Liang, general manager and chief architect at AMG, said the group is serious about investing in AMG projects either through its EB-5 visa program or other ways.

While in Houston, the group also visited the home of the Houston Rockets NBA basketball team, Rice University, the NASA's Johnson Space Center and met with locals and tasted Texas cuisine.

Over the past year, AMG has guided scores of high-net-worth individuals from China on tours of Texas to get a first-hand look at investing opportunities and the lifestyle.

After getting safety instructions at the Top Gun range, the visitors put on protective goggles and noise-reduction headphones, and lined up to take turns at firing under the guidance of three instructors.

"I used four different guns, including an AK47 and an M16," Li Songwei said. The other two were an FNP90 and a Colt SMG. All are submachine guns, according to Ryan Olson, an instructor at Top Gun.

Li said his favorite gun-fight movie is Mr. & Mrs. Smith. The 2005 American romantic comedy action film stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as a bored married couple surprised to learn that they are both assassins hired by competing agencies to kill each other.

"I love that movie. It's not just about a gun fight. It's about lovers communicating to each other through guns. It's normal for a Chinese couple to argue back and forth - it is just part of the communication. I find the movie echoes that in a relationship," said Li.

Not everyone in the group was thrilled about firing guns. One woman was satisfied with pointing a gun at a target, posing for a couple of photos and then putting it down. Another woman was so enthralled by the exercise that she took two turns at firing.

Olson said the gun range sees a fair number of Chinese visitors. "We get them every day. This is something to do when people visit here. We get visitors from all over the world," he said.

Olson also noted that Texas is one of the most open states as far as gun restriction goes. On Jan 1, the state became the 45th to allow the open carry of handguns.

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 05/23/2016 page2)