The courage to study

"We outsourced the manufacturing of products to our family factories since my family runs a clothing business and my partner's parents own a plastic processing factory," Yao says.

Recalling his four-year life at Nottingham Ningbo, Yao said the biggest challenge was mastering the English language.

"All courses were instructed in English, which was hard for us during the first one or two years," Yao says.

Nevertheless, the tough time worked out in the end.

"The most valuable thing I learned is courage - the courage to take risks to join this school, the courage to try things I had no idea before, and the courage to face potential failures - something I cannot learn from textbooks," he says.

Besides selling sports gear, Yao also had a job in Shanghai as a foreign currency trader. He has recently quit the job and started another company that specializes in cloud computing work.

Among Yao's classmates, about 10 percent opened their own business after graduation, another 10 percent took over their family business, more than 20 percent went to the UK or the US for further education, and others joined banks or other financial institutes.

"According to my career plan, I will return to school for an MBA after another three to five years," Yao says, "By then I would need to recharge my brain."