Shanghai Daily News

To some, Zhang Zhijun could be considered a clean freak. His attention to cleanliness has proved a good thing. The local restaurant he set up in 2001 has since become well known for its spotless conditions and he would like to expand the idea further.

Sitting in his P.P. Jin Tang Seafood Restaurant in Jinshan District which he designed himself, Zhang said he sees a good future in his clean strategy as people want nice, immaculate places to enjoy a meal.

As general manager and chairman of the restaurant, he said he isn't ashamed to clean the floor by himself even when the most difficult of customers spit on the floor.

"I'd like to build my restaurant into the most sanitary one in the district," Zhang said. "During the SARS period (of 2003), I made a sanitary standard list before the formal one came out. The turnover at my restaurant was no less than normal at that time."

With his hands-on approach, Zhang also designed the food dishes by himself, paying great attention to their presentation.

"I chose to locate in Jinshan for the reason that the secondary technical school where I graduated was situated in the district," said Zhang. "In addition, I saw great potential in its golden coastline and abundant land resources."

Before establishing his seafood restaurant, the Shanghai native had started from scratch in a variety of businesses. Among them, he toiled in such fields as medical equipment, textiles, electrical equipment and red wine.

"Since I had no knowledge of these fields, I ordered books about them on Internet and read at night. What I need was a breakthrough to my business."

After graduating from technical school in automation in 1982, Zhang was assigned to work at Shanghai Petrochemical Co Ltd. For the first six months he worked as a front-line technician in charge of the operation and deployment work. Later he became a committee member of Youth League with the responsibility of developing new members and organizing more activities.

"I found my knowledge in specialized field such as economic management was insufficient, so I began taking courses at a junior college," Zhang said. To further improve himself, he went to Australia in 1989 and stayed for three years.

"I didn't know English at that time for at school Russian was our second language. In addition to the language problem, difficulty in finding employment put a lot of extra pressure on me," he said.

Good fortune, however, struck when he was recruited by George Weston, a large food processing and distribution company. During his 18 months of working for the Canadian baking giant, he progressed from a baker to a production manager.

"Production manager was the highest position a Chinese had had in that company," Zhang said. "However, the most amazing thing was being a baker for its creation. I often changed the ingredients to adapt to the different customers' tastes."

His Australian experience brought many new ideas to Zhang's management style for the seafood restaurant.

"Now I'm doing my best to raise the level of standards for the restaurant industry in the district. With my courageous and innovative spirit, it's possible that I will start more new businesses from scratch."