Welcome to the Cynica podcast, weekly discussion of current affairs in China, coming to you from the pop-up Chinese studio here in Beijing.

I'm Kaiser-Wil, going at alone, Sanz co-hosts this this week is David Moser's got an evening class to teach,

and Jeremy Goldcorn is actually enjoying a tropical holiday in Hawaii with the whole extended

gold corn clan, big aloha to the Goldcorns.

So I get a lot of requests from listeners to do shows about entrepreneurship to profile a successful

entrepreneur, especially, you know, maybe a foreigner who's managed to build a profitable

business in a really, you know, often hostile and quite competitive environment with sometimes

difficult regulatory obstacles that they have to navigate. In some ways, I'm told, I don't have any

entrepreneurial bones in my body, not a single one. I wouldn't know from personal experience.

In some ways, they say that Beijing, well, maybe China more generally, is actually a pretty

easy place to set up a business. Others have told me quite the opposite. Well, today we're going

to talk to a successful

business owner in Beijing, an American whose business I personally patronized with a rather

alarming frequency. As faithful listeners to this show will know, we like to drink a beer

or two or three as we record Cinnica, and often after the show, we're, you know, all heading up the

street to one of my very favorite places in town. Great Leap Brewing, the tap room at E-12,

Shin Zhongji right off of Chun Xiu Lu, so that I can enjoy a pint, or two or three, of Shao Shui,

the little general. Actually, it ought to be, I've got to bring this up with the owner,

it ought to be young Marshall, if we're going to be historically faithful about it,

as the delicious IPA is actually named after Zhang Shui Liang.

Today, on Cynica, we are going to be talking about operating an F&B business in China,

about the growing popularity of craft beer in China.

...