Don Li

I was born and raised in China and came to the states about seventeen years ago. I settled in the Washington, D.C. region, where I spent nearly a decade working in software development and support for about a dozen firms, both large and small. Nonetheless, I eventually got tired of Northern Virginia’s over-crowdedness and unbearable traffic, among other things, and looked into the charming, mid-sized city that was Roanoke. Soon after, I made my move and became a Roanoke resident. In addition, because I had an international business background, and wanted to reconnect with lost friends in China (as well as help U.S. firms to do business in China), I found Roanoke to be a good candidate for emerging Chinese firms - as start-up costs for businesses and living are much cheaper than in a larger city. Moreover, on a personal level, I wanted to know and understand more about my new country, and felt that living in the south would add to that experience tremendously.