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May 6 (NBD) -- Last Saturday, May 4th (ET.), nearly 50,000 attendees from around the globe filled the CHI Health Center in Omaha for the annual meeting of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, about one fifth of whom were Chinese.

The biggest highlight of the meeting, as usual, was the question-and-answer session with Buffett and Charles T. Munger, where affluent Chinese seek for answers to better manage their wealth. 

The meeting is not for successful entrepreneurs only. During the six-hour marathon Q&A this year, an 11-year-old Chinese boy impressed everyone present by asking these two investor giants a question about humanity and investment. It was the second time that this little boy attended the meeting.

National Business Daily (NBD) noticed that the number of Chinese attendees experienced a leap from hundreds to nearly 10,000 in 2019. According to Washington Post, the Chinese contingent at the meeting reached 5,000 last year while it was merely 1,000 in 2014.

Apart from those coming to Omaha in person, a growing number of Chinese people stay up late to watch the live event at home. Yahoo Finance live-streamed the annual meeting to 3 million people worldwide in only two languages: English and Mandarin.

Known as "Woodstock for Capitalists", the meeting has grown from a small gathering into a weekend-long event, stepping into spotlight worldwide. Especially for the Chinese, the meeting seems to wave a magic wand to eliminate their anxiety over maintaining and increasing the value of their assets.

"Today what puzzles me is not how to do business but how to invest," a 50-year-old entrepreneur Huang told NBD.

Huang has been running real-estate business in southwest China for more than 16 years. Huang made his trip to Omaha last year seeking for investment strategy. "Everyone knows Buffett. He is the expert in the investment world," said Huang. 

Besides the pilgrimage to the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, there also witnesses a boom in business trips for entrepreneurs and summer camps for teenagers with the theme to learn Buffett's investment philosophy in his hometown Omaha.

In the name of pilgrimage, almost all business trips center on "Warren Buffett" in Omaha by touring around Buffett's house, office, and his favorite Steakhouse. These business trips usually charge each member from 60,000 yuan ($8,900) to 150,000 yuan ($22,250), depending on the duration and service of trips.

In addition to the trip in Omaha, premium trips requiring higher fees also arrange the visit to both high-tech companies on the west coast of the U.S. and Wall Street firms on the east side.

Buffett's magical effect is not confined to adult businessmen but Chinese children. According to Yahoo Finance, a "Little Buffett" summer camp recruits Chinese kids and teenagers aged between 6 and 19 to go on "the trip for future entrepreneurs, scientists and investors".

Three different routes across the USA are involved in the camp: the East Coast, the West Coast and the Middle America. All participants will spend the last three days of their trip in Omaha to learn how to invest.

However, the first step to "learn how to invest" is to invest money in the camp. For each kid, the cost was advertised to be about $8,600, excluding the round-trip tickets from China to the U.S. and parents are welcome to join as well, at $6,600 per person.

The organizer said that the purpose of starting such a trip or camp is actually to offer participants opportunities to network with other investors, paving the way for future personal and corporate development.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn