IN Xuhui District, in southeastern Shanghai, a small road called "Guan Sheng Yuan Lu" was where the former No.1 local food snack factory was located.

　　The Guan Sheng Yuan Food Factory had been forced to move to the street from its original location at 200 Caobao Lu due to infrastructure construction. At the time of the move, the local government allowed the company the naming rights to the road in recognition of the company's great contribution to the city in the 1930s and 1940s.

　　Back in 1901, a young man named Xian Bingcheng arrived in Shanghai from his hometown in Nanhai, Guangdong Province. He found work as an apprentice in a small eatery and a few years later started his own business.

　　Unfortunately his small outlet was a far from flourishing concern and he was forced to close down. He then began carrying his home-made orange peel prunes and dried beef on a shoulder pole and made a precarious living selling them in downtown Shanghai.

　　The story goes one day Xian happened to be selling his culinary efforts to the audience at the New Theatre where a production of "Monk Ji Gong" was playing. The play proved to be a hit and continued to draw large audiences who appreciated Xian's snacks.

　　The prunes were small but delicious and the dried beef, chewy and juicy, both with a strong Guangdong flavour.

　　After the sales success outside the New Theatre, Xian's small business never looked back.

　　With his accumulated takings, Xian launched a food factory and opened his first outlet on Henan Lu in then Nanshi District. Copying the brand design of a Hong Kong food factory, Xian designed a striking trademark with a Chinese character "Sheng", as the second word in his new brand name.

　　He changed his name to Xian Guansheng and made it a firm business policy to promote national products only and he set out to do battle with imported food products.

　　From the early 1920s, Xian placed great emphasis on quality and purchased a mechanical biscuit processing line which not only helped his company improve the quality of his food products but also totally changed the slow, manual working practices long used in China.

　　Xian was also a person with a strong patriotic feelings and a deep national consciousness. He refused to compete with his main domestic rival - the Taikang Food Company - during the "Foreign Products Boycott Campaign" and, instead, united with Taikang to aid the campaign. This action won Xian great fame in old Shanghai.

　　After moving his shop front to 555 Nanjing Lu in 1930, Xian began to focus more on advertising. He first erected a three-storey iron tower at the estuary of the Wusong River with the name, "Guan Sheng Yuan Orange Peel Prune", glittering in lights on top.

　　During the mid-autumn festival of 1934, he invited Hu Die, the Chinese movie queen of the time, to take part in his moon-cake promotion party.

　　He also took out advertisements in some of Shanghai's influential newspapers, such as the "Shen Bao Daily" and further promoted his business in brochures sent out to local families.

　　Xian, through his strenuous efforts, had made Guan Sheng Yuan a household name in Shanghai and in neighbouring provinces. It continues today to be one of the leaders of Shanghai's food industry.