飲食人語 Faces & Places

text/photo. Mandy Chou

The Chinese Beer Lady
Helen Zhao finds her rainbow in Pearl River

Helen was so happy she was able to get an accounting job, the same kind of work she did back home, soon after she landed as an immigrant from Xian to Vancouver. Unfortunately, she joined the unemployed lineup when the company folded a few years later.

Sad and despaired, she turned to SUCCESS for help. It was the 1-year Job Training Program she took there that gave her new hope and new-found confidence, and the courage to take the first step.

Helen spent numerous hours searching for opportunities. While surfing on the internet one day, she found herself looking at Pearl River Chinese Beer’s website. “May be I can do something here for them!” The thought was followed by a letter Helen wrote to Pearl River Beer in which she asked one simple but very vital question; ”Would you like to expand into the North America market?’

After numerous email communications and market studies, Helen was granted a 10-year Agency contract from Pearl River for the entire N. America market.

To Helen, that was both an end and a beginning; an end to the uncertainty about the future and to all the job searching; and a beginning to a new chapter in Helen’s life and new challenges.

For someone like Helen who had no actual business experience and who did not drink, working as a beer agency presented another colossus of unknowns. SUCCESS’s training course taught her the basic skills and knowledge to start a business, but the daily operation of a real office and the hardship of sales and marketing were something Helen must face on her own.

Helen fell down many times, stood up tall again and again. She learnt the trade the hard way, but most importantly, thrived on it without ever letting herself and Pearl River Chinese Beer down.

2005, she was awarded an ‘Establishment Award’; the following year, she received a ‘Business Achievement Award’. Today, Pearl River Chinese Beer is a household name and can be found in most Chinese restaurants in Lower Mainland.
Looking back, Helen strongly believed that ‘When one door closed, another door would open.’ She also believed that if you put your heart and effort into something, nothing will stop you! Helen appreciates each and every path life has presented to her. Now that she is a mom, she enhances and enjoys life to the fullest extend. “Coming home to my daughter’s angelic face and sweet smile from a day’s work is the best reward!”

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