Two students return from abroad to open beer factory

Xia Yulin, (left) and Pan Dinghao taste beer at a "Panda Brew" bar in Changsha, Hunan province, April 16, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

"Panda Pan" is a nickname of Pan Dinghao, a student who returned from Canada to set up a craft beer factory with his friend Xiao Yulin in Yiyang city, Hunan province.

Pan was a college student studying automotive engineering in Canada, while Xia was a student in the United Kingdom.

Driven by their shared interest of beer making, the two men opened their first shop to sell the craft beer produced by themselves in Beijing in 2013. At the beginning their business expanded fast. But soon they hit the "development bottleneck" as they struggled to cover the costs.

In order to keep their business afloat, Pan and Xia decided to rent a production line to expand production, and packaged their craft beer in Xia's hometown in Yiyang.

At the end of 2013, their first bottled beer was launched. Later, they opened a flagship outlet named "Panda Brew" to sell the craft beer in Beijing in 2014. Last year, they obtained 20 million yuan ($3.08 million) investment. Now, they are selling "Panda Brew" beer in more and more cities.