Ashley was born in Asia, in Vladivostok, located in Russia’s Far East near the borders with China, Korea and Japan. Her hometown always had people from all over Asia as merchants, tourists and diplomats.    Ashley eventually made her way to China in 2006. She enrolled at a university in Chongqing, the world’s largest city. Her first year in China was dedicated to studying the language from scratch. She mastered it in a year and reached HSK level 6, a test for Chinese proficiency.   Ashley then enrolled in Chongqing University’s School of Business and Economics, majoring in Business Administration. She was awarded the Chongqing Municipal Government’s Full Mayor Scholarship twice while studying and managed to graduate with honors in 3 instead of the stipulated 4 years.    She loved seeing how Chinese entrepreneurs – many of them women – hustled and did business. Ashley also saw how fast China was growing, changing and digitizing.   In 2010, she relocated to Hong Kong and started her first business, Alarice, a China digital marketing company in 2011. Today Alarice has 3 offices across Hong Kong, Shanghai and Shenzhen.