Chan Wing continued to work many jobs, including as a shopkeeper for two of Loke Yew's shops in Sungai Besi.
At the age of 24, he formed a syndicate with four of his clansmen, including Cheong Yoke Choy, to investigate tin ore next to Loke Yew's Sungai Besi mine.
Chan also ventured into rice and rubber, and with fellow towkays, founded Kwong Yik Bank in 1913.
He chose to live permanently in Malaya, and as an act of defiance against the Manchu government he cut off his queue.
In the 1920s Chan Wing built a mansion at Petaling Hill in western Kuala Lumpur for his family of 10 wives and 26 children.