At a busy corner in Beijing's central business district, Zhang Tianyi serves up bowls of beef rice noodles to office workers during mealtimes. Long lines for this Changde City specialty from central China's Hunan Province form every day.

Zhang, 24, will graduate from prestigious Peking University with a master's degree in law in July. But instead of practicing law, he chose self-employment because he was not able to find an ideal job when hunting for one half a year ago.

"It's not easy to find the job you want, no matter which university you graduated from. There is fierce competition," Zhang said. He opened his restaurant that sells rice noodles together with three friends using a seed fund of about 100,000 yuan ($16,030) in early April.

Good attempt

Zhang was held up as an example by Xin Changxing, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, at a news conference on employment held in Beijing on May 20. The vice minister encouraged college graduates to start their own businesses to beat the difficult job market.

Xin said that he read Zhang's story in a media report and was impressed when Zhang said that Beijing needs a bowl of authentic beef rice noodles from his hometown more than it needs another financial lawyer.

Xin praised Zhang's entrepreneurial spirit with which he sought out a vacancy in the market and filled it.

Another story came from three senior science students who opened an online shop selling women's sanitary napkins.

Wu Fengming, one of the students from Central South University in Changsha, Hunan, said that the idea came to him from his girlfriend, who often bought him clothes and underwear online.

"If she and other girls were given sanitary napkins each month, they may feel they are cared for and loved," Wu said.

The energy-engineering major and two of his software development school friends-turned-partners opened Qinaide520.com, which sounds like "my dear, I love you," on March 1.

The website requires customers to register as members while ordering an annual supply of sanitary towels. The store then sends them out each month.

As well as struggling to find capital support, Wu said that he had to overcome other problems such as embarrassment and misunderstanding from the public and even his parents, who pressed him to get a "real job."

"We should implant a spirit of entrepreneurship when educating students, and let them be aware that starting a business is a choice," Xin said.

However, Zhang said that the support for college students to start their own businesses is still far from enough. "There was no professional staff in college to provide consultation related to entrepreneurship for students and the requirements for tax deductions were too high to meet," he said.

Feng Lijuan, a human resources specialist from 51job.com, a major recruitment website in China, said that starting a business suits only a small minority of people. She urged college graduates to work as employees to accumulate capital and work experience, as well as build a network of connections, before trying to launch their own businesses.

This is echoed by Lu Xuejing, a social security expert at Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business. "Only a small number of graduates are qualified to start their own businesses. More importantly, the government should speed up economic restructuring to create more job opportunities," she said.

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