Spaniard launches startup to show Beijing’s hidden gems

Visitors walk the hotongs with Beijing Hutong Trips.[Photo provided to China Daily]

However, no one said starting a business is easy, especially for an expat. Casellas started promoting the tours through WeChat, an instant message app, through expanding networks in chat groups and spreading the words among expat groups.

"The Beijing expat community is still relatively small. Luckily for us, most expats that we came across are friendly and helpful," he said.

According to Casellas, owning a start-up business means he needs to juggle between expanding networks for potential business cooperation and digging for more unique content to interest customers.

"We cooperate with bars, restaurants, hotels and cultural institutions to do collaborations, " Casellas said. "We have held craft beer brewery tours where we lead people and hop around hutongs for cold brews. We also had a rice wine party in a unique restaurant where random people showed up to join."

Riding on the wave of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation", more individuals' need to fulfill their career goals are getting more and better policy and social support.

According to a list of "Best cities for start-up businesses in Chinese mainland 2016" issued by Biaozhunpaiming, Tencent Research Institute and UR Work, Beijing is the best place for individuals to pursue the goal of owning a business.