Call it the scenic route to international expansion.

When Beijing-based Yingke Law Firm started looking overseas in 2010, it didn’t make a beeline to New York, London, or even Hong Kong. Instead, the firm opened its first international offices in the somewhat more picturesque cities of Budapest, Verona, and Istanbul. In Verona, Yingke’s office is just around the corner from the house where Shakespeare’s Juliet supposedly once lived.