Coffee, tea and dreams

3W Coffee in Beijing's Zhongguancun area is increasingly popular among young entrepreneurs, particularly after Premier Li Keqiang's visit in early May.Photos [Photo provided To China Daily]

Their six-month-old company started providing services in March. The revenue in April alone reached 1 million yuan and its user base has already expanded to thousands of people.

"It's the best time for entrepreneurs. Young people are encouraged to have their own businesses. Beijing is perfect for Internet startups," Hao says.

According to data revealed by the management committee of Zhongguancun, the daily average of startups created in that area was 49 last year, three times that of in 2013.

Garage Coffee alone has seen about 15,000 startups looking for investors since 2011, says the cafe's CEO Jin Zisen.

The entrepreneurship boom has also swept other big cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai and Chengdu. Unlike Beijing's Internet-friendly environment, South China's Shen-zhen, once called the world's factory, is said to be good at cultivating startups focusing on intelligent hardware.

Shi Chi, 34, returned to China from Silicon Valley in the United States to build up a virtual reality-devices company called uSens. Before his return in 2013, Shi set up several companies in the US.

The entrepreneur with a doctorate in physics says his return follows China's startup wave.

"Lots of Chinese who used to work in the Silicon Valley chose to return to China to set up their businesses because China has the largest industry chain and consumer market," says Shi.

Shi set up a factory for his high-tech devices in Shen-zhen. The project won crowdfunding of more than $300,000 within two months of their presence on a leading crowdfunding website.