DUBAI - Recalling when he arrived in Dubai in 2003, Zhang Junyi said he had nothing but a dream to make money.

Now, after almost nine years of hard work amid ups and downs in one of the world's most glamorous business hubs, Zhang, 33, has become a millionaire following a business path unlike those who came before him: - selling high-end massage chairs to the wealthy in the Middle East and beyond.

Zhang, an entrepreneur from Wenzhou, China's private-capital powerhouse in eastern Zhejiang province, runs 10 boutiques in Dubai selling healthcare equipment including the massage chairs. He is the first in the city to retail such products.

While earlier generations from Wenzhou sold low-end manufactured wares, such as shoes, clothes, lamps and lanterns, on a wholesale basis with thin profit margins, Zhang found he could retail more advanced products for a much higher profit.

"We, the younger generation, are not satisfied in traditional manufacturing and are trying to tap into less competitive areas with less competition that have higher returns," said Zhang, whose first job in Dubai was as a salesman in his father's friend's shop in Deira, the so-called "city of shoes" in Dubai. He is no stranger to the difficulties of starting from scratch and earning money in a very competitive industry.

After years of observation, in 2005, he decided to start a business of his own selling massage chairs to rich tourists and businesspeople in Dubai. "It's a huge market with big potential, " Zhang said.

The young entrepreneur with sharp business savvy now drives a luxury Porsche Cayenne sport utility vehicle and owns several properties in Dubai and three companies in the United Arabic Emirates (UAE), Iraq, and Qatar.

His success was a factor in his being chosen chairman of the Wenzhou Chamber of Commerce in the UAE in May, to take over from Chen Zhiyuan, one of the earliest Chinese entrepreneurs in the city and founder of the chamber, which now has more than 500 member companies.

There's a trend that entrepreneurs from Wenzhou are getting younger in the city, Zhang said, adding that the average age of the chamber member companies' owners is around 37 to 38.

Accompanying the change in age patterns is these entrepreneurs' different investment philosophy.

"We no longer want to be speculators, like what we did before, investing our hard-earned money in risky property markets. Most of my friends now prefer to engage in industries to gain more stable returns. That's the future of doing business," Zhang said.

Unofficial figures show that around 10,000 people from Wenzhou are engaged in a wide range of businesses in Dubai. But the trend is that more than before are pumping money into the service industries such as hotel chains and shopping malls. .

"It's clear that the age of windfalls from speculation has passed, and it's time to get back to the basics, to get into consumption-driven industries, " Zhang said.

Zhang is optimistic about the future: "Based on our business in Dubai, we're also very active in seeking business opportunities in new markets that we have yet to tap into - Africa, for example."

China Daily

(China Daily 01/17/2012 page3)