People from the Nordic countries have a reputation for being egalitarian and respecting personal space. With trade between China and Northern Europe on the rise, how do Chinese businesspeople and their Nordic counterparts perceive one another? Our reporter Xi Jia in Helsinki finds out.

XI JIA HELSINKI "Nordic people like to keep a healthy distance from each other both physically and mentally. It seems that most of them put more emphasis on their personal lives than their professional lives. This has arguably contributed to the fact the World Happiness Report has consistently ranked the countries in the region among the happiest in the world. Finland was ranked the happiest country in the world this year. In terms of doing business, how do people here see Finnish and Chinese businessmen?"

PETRI SAARINEN, CDO TERALOOP "We talk few words, but all of the words count. It's about trust in our case, so within Finnish business culture, when you meet a person you already have 100% trust within each other. When it comes to bigger nations, you basically meet a person, the trust factor is zero, then you have to build the trust. Obviously, we have to learn the Chinese way to build relationships that something that not many Finnish companies know how to do."

ARI HUCZKOWSKI, CEO LUMINTEL "I have now about 15 years of experience dealing with Chinese businessmen and businesswomen and also government officials. I guess the biggest differences come from Finnish business people always go very quickly to the point, very quickly and the Chinese don't go so directly to the point, but they make a little bit circles around the topic."

Chinese businesswoman Jenny Zhu came to Helsinki 21 years ago. Here she finished her master's degree, married a Finnish man and gave birth to her daughter, Milla. She started doing business with Finnish people in 1998, after working at NOKIA. 64-year-old entrepreneur Sauli is Jenny's local business partner. He has been helping Jenny with her work in bringing Chinese and Finnish firms together in the optical sensor, so he has become quite well versed in the business environment of the two markets.

SAULI TORMALA, CHAIRMAN FOCALSPEC "You can start from top down and think big in the very beginning, and think about the whole business concept first and make the investment. You start big already from the very beginning, while typically in Finland especially with small startup companies, they have to start from the bottom up, building the business little by little, case by case."

JENNY ZHUCHINESE BUSINESSWOMAN IN FINLAND "Finnish people are very straightforward, and for the Chinese people, they like to deliver messages in a more diplomatic and sophisticated way."

When Chinese businessmen meet their Finnish engineer counterparts, it could be a perfect fusion of practicality and farsightedness. Xi Jia, CGTN, Helsinki, Finland.