The Wiki boss has often said that his free, not-for-profit online encyclopaedia - that now gets seven billion page views each month with in-excess of five million multiple-language entries - was either the "smartest thing, or the dumbest thing that I ever did".

BBC: NEWS | Technology | Wikipedia founder takes on Google

"We live in an ever smaller global community and we probably are at a point where we believe having some language skills is a useful thing - it's what I would call a vocational skill really, " he says.

BBC: 'Gaming' the school league tables?

Regardless of all of the above, one thing you should always do when traveling around China is carry with you Chinese-language business cards of your hotel or of places you wish to visit so you can show passers-by, taxi drivers, bus conductors and the like.

CNN: 5 top tips for China first-timers

They have different perceptions of the man but agree on at least one thing - whatever Capt O'Neill intended to achieve he was handicapped by the fact he could never quite speak the language of the people who voted for his party.

BBC: Captain Terence O'Neill: Visionary or failure?