Education resources
"We have a good place to run our company," Zhang said. Of all cities in the Chinese mainland, Xi'an ranks third in higher-education resources, behind only Beijing and Shanghai. Many of the universities are strong in engineering disciplines.
In recent years, the city has developed China's largest cluster of new colleges of a non-State background by blending local private capital and its large number of retired educators.
None of the private capital-supported colleges can compete with the large State-owned ones for academic fame. But that actually helps them concentrate on developing so-called middle-skill people.
"Though called 'outsourcing services,' a trendy name, our task is just to help our partner with their household chores," Zhang said.
Here, on one hand, you need computers and broadband to function. But on the other, the job is by nature not suitable for the kind of talent required for more independent and creative work.
The job is to deliver - and to meet all the requirements as set forth by the clients. And that is typically the job for middle-skilled workers. With the abundant supply of college graduates it can find in Xi'an, the company can always manage to deliver - not only to meet those requirements, but with "a lower error rate".
A lower error rate is the key, Zhang said. "For clients, it means a guaranteed satisfaction rate. And for us, it means lower costs, too," because that saves the trouble from going over the process time and again to find out where the errors are. "We have good people to depend on here," he said.
At 75, he travelled in Europe; at 98, he got a master's degree; at 102, he published an autobiography.