Food for good taste, big money and success

It only took four years for 29-year-old Noriko Shinohara, a Japanese national, to establish a restaurant chain with three outlets under two brands in central Beijing. She and her Irish boyfriend are now decorating a new Japanese Izakaya (restaurant) for launch this April.

"I opened (the two-outlet) Bottega (line) just after I finished my college study in China. There were a lot of voices saying I couldn't do it because I was a very young girl, had no experience, and came from another country," she said.

The first few years were anything but easy. "It's difficult dealing with the regulators, the landlords, customers, and employees. I even cut my hair and changed my makeup style because I wanted other people to take me seriously, for a real businesswoman who wants to achieve something instead of a college girl who was just thinking big."