Born in the 1960s - Gu Xianfeng, 45
Print Edition
Sitting in his spacious office with traditional Chinese wooden furniture, Gu Xianfeng recalls with delightful nostalgia how he sold socks, lighters and greeting cards to make money when he was in college more than 20 years ago.
It was about the time when xia hai (下海), or “jumping into the sea,” was the mantra of then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping as he encouraged people to embrace the market-opening policies.
“I think I had an early business sense,” says Gu, now the chief executive of Shanghai Longting International Travel Service Co, a tourism company he founded in 2003.
In a sense, he has pulled up his socks to tap into the booming domestic market for tourism as Chinese people embrace travel in their leisure time.
For Gu, who was born in 1968 in Shanghai, travel once meant days and nights on crowded, stuffy trains between Shanghai and the northwestern province of Qinghai, listening to the wheels relentlessly clacking along the rails.
During his teenage years, Gu lived in the Qinghai capital of Xining, where his parents went to “answer the call of the nation to support frontier areas.”
“I was derided as a country boy when I came back to Shanghai on occasions, and I had few friends,” says Gu.
In 1987 he was successfully ranked among the top scorers in the national college entrance examination, beating out millions of young people seeking to gain admission to colleges and universities.
Like many others of his era, Gu’s life and career dreams were buffeted by the dramatic changes occurring in China’s economy and social life.
The emphasis switched to making money in a more market-oriented environment.
After graduation, he first worked in the Labor Bureau in Shanghai’s Baoshan District, but he found no challenge in government civil service. So he decided to set out on his own and try his luck.
He founded a small tourism company in 2003, sensing the potential in the travel industry even as the SARS epidemic was playing havoc with leisure activities.
“The start-up was not very tough, but we still lacked money,” says Gu, who did a lot of footwork to take advantage of old connections, or ren mai (ÈËÂö) in Chinese.
Several large State-owned companies and government departments in suburban Baoshan soon became Gu’s first clients. “Friends, I should say,” Gu says, smiling as he corrected himself.
With an estimated revenue at 100 million yuan (US$16.2 million) this year, Gu’s company is now targeting downtown Shanghai residents, a mature market that poses great challenges for expansion.
“Quality and detail are what I always pursue,” says Gu. “Booking flights and hotels is easy, but I am catering to people who want to be assured that their hotel room is air-conditioned and that the food in the restaurant features local specialties. I can do that.”
To keep pace with burgeoning online travel, Gu has set up his own e-commerce site (www.best-tour.cn), which also is used to raise funds to support needy students.
Gu says he wants to help youngsters from poor backgrounds to have the same opportunities as he did to make something of themselves. So far, his Best-Tour Fund has helped 14 students, in Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu Province.
Now in middle age, Gu says he hasn’t stopped dreaming of a better future.
“My given name is Xianfeng, meaning ‘dangerous peak’ in Chinese,” he says. “I’d like to see my business scale the peaks and reach exciting new vistas. But for needy students, I want a smooth journey that dodges the dangerous peaks.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
