Recipe for cross-Straits cooperation

Most people his age would have continued with their jobs all the way to retirement but Zhang Guosheng decided that it was never too late to seek new challenges in life.

Having worked for State-owned companies for 30 years, Zhang left his comfort zone and made the foray into the hospitality industry on March 5, 2014, taking up the role of general manager at Shanghai Wang Bao He Co Ltd, which manages two hotels and a restaurant in Shanghai and a flagship restaurant in Beijing.

"This was a totally different area for me and it presented a great challenge for someone my age who has been accustomed to the system and workflow of State-owned companies," said the 52-year-old. Furthermore, Zhang entered the industry at a time when domestic hotels were facing a business slump amid slower economic growth.

To expand Wang Bao He's business, which was already well-known locally, Zhang and his team decided to focus on what the brand is famous for - its crabs and rice wine - and turned their attention to Taiwan, where people were not particularly aware of the brand.

The first step was taken in May 2015 when delegates from Central Hotel Shanghai, a four-star establishment affiliated to Wang Bao He, paid a visit to the Grand Hotel Taipei and proposed a collaboration. Then, after months of e-mail exchanges, Zhang took his team and their famous hairy crab dishes to the Grand Hotel Taipei in October.

The dishes instantly wowed the local gourmands, and during a weeklong promotional event in Taiwan, Zhang managed to generate about 130,000 yuan ($19,773) in sales.

"The feast turned out to be such a success that the dining area was full every day," said Johnson Chiang, president of Grand Hotel Taipei.

Having noticed Grand Hotel Taipei's interest in making dim sum using the highly popular hairy crabs, Zhang got his chefs to teach their counterparts how to make mini steamed buns stuffed with crab roe and pork, mini dumplings with crab meat and pork, as well as crab shell cakes. In return, Taipei's chefs taught their counterparts from the mainland how to create authentic Taiwan dishes.

"Thanks to Wang Bao He's chefs, our mini pork buns with crab roe have become the must-order item in our hotel," said Chiang.

The successful event has since spurred the two hotels to further their cooperation. On Jan 20, the two agreed to collaborate on similar culinary exchanges every March and October, starting this year.

Taiwan-style dishes from the Grand Hotel Taipei, including Madame Chiang Kai-shek's favored red bean muffin, will be available at the Central Hotel Shanghai for five days starting March 23, 2016. There are about 300,000 Taiwan people who are living and working in Shanghai and Zhang said that this will help to create a customer base for Taiwan-style dishes in the city.

"Fine food is the best way to promote cross-Straits communication. We hope that this partnership will be long-lasting," said Chiang.

He Jianmin, a professor specializing in tourism management at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said this unique tourism marketing effort should be encouraged among hotels, seeing how many people travel between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. He said that the two establishments should also look into sharing their customers and management resources in the future.

About 4.15 million trips were made to Taiwan by tourists from the Chinese mainland in 2015, and Chinese travelers were projected to have generated about 230 billion New Taiwan dollars ($6.9 billion) in sales for the island last year, according to a report from Taiwan.cn, which is affiliated to the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China.

Apart from cooperating with Grand Hotel Taipei, the Central Hotel Shanghai is also looking to establish similar collaborations with hotels in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Tokyo, said Zhang.

The two hotels under Wang Bao He, the Central Hotel Shanghai and the five-star Grand Central Hotel Shanghai are currently undergoing changes with the goal of achieving an 8 percent growth in revenue this year. Zhang is confident that this can be achieved, thanks to the company's new revenue management software and the large amount of tourists expected to turn up to visit the upcoming Shanghai Disney Resort.

The company's roots can be traced back to 1744 when the first Wang Bao He tavern was opened by Wang Guichen. The brand has since its inception been famed for being a "rice wine expert" and "crab master".

wangying@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/06/2016 page10)