"I hope I can one day build an organization called 'Lyon's Home' in Shanghai. The Lyon's Home aims at cultural and economic exchanges between the two cities," she said.

Yao's idea won much praise at a contest in Lyon designed especially for foreign students. Contestants were encouraged to give their ideas about how to improve the relations between Lyon and their original cities.

Yao became the first Chinese winner since the program, run by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Lyon, was initiated three years ago.

"I found the program interesting since it offered me a chance to express my love to both Shanghai and Lyon," she said.

Yao graduated from an undergraduate school of the Shanghai International Studies University in 1999 and went to Lyon a year ago. “Shanghai and Lyon are both dynamic cities and I believe the cooperation between the two will be promising,” she said.

Last October, Yao and other overseas students from 12 grandes ecoles in Lyon received invitations to become “Young Ambassadors in Lyon”. Students from 28 nationalities replied, among whom 53 participated in the final idea contest. Four girls, Caroline Cerrera from Venezuela, Yao from China, Julie Hanssen from Germany and Cajade Zacarias, became the final four winners.

The program permitted every contestant to have a coach -- someone more experienced -- to work with. The coaches were selected from managers of either international groups or local small and medium sized enterprises, depending on the different interests shown by the contestants at the beginning of the program. The coaches showed the contestants history and culture of Lyon and gave them an opportunity to have direct contact with their industries or companies.

Yao was coached by Alain Guilhot, head of a cabinet of lighting architecture.

Doing a Master of Management in l'Ecole de Management of Lyon, a business school of Lyon, Yao developed her idea “La Maison de Lyon a Shanghai” (Lyon's Home in Shanghai) on two aspects: gastronomy and city lighting.

"Food is a great topic both in China and in France. Deals are often done at the table." She explained her idea of opening a restaurant in Lyon's Home. "French cuisine is usually considered a luxury in foreign countries due to its selected materials and expensive personnel. We would like to show people what French cuisine is at a lower price."

"It is possible with the cooperation of schools of cuisine and hotel business in Lyon. Interns from these schools are going to be the major employees," she said.

Lyon's Home will also help promote exchanges of the two places on city lighting.

"I've learned that Lyon has put many efforts on improving city lights in the past decade. Now its street lamps are often artistically designed. Buildings are not lit in an aggressive way as most are in China," Yao said.

"Shanghai can really learn much from Lyon's experience," She said. "The night scene of Shanghai will become more amazing if it will have a more artistic style of lighting."

A database for enterprises both in Shanghai and Lyon was also mentioned in her project. Companies from the two cities can search for information about each other from this database.

"This will help attract more small and medium sized enterprises from Lyon to open business in Shanghai, and also more Shanghai businesses to open in Lyon," she said. The second largest city in France, Lyon is attracting many entrepreneurs by its fast economic development and its vogue life style.

Lyon's Home is going to be a non-profit one, she said. "With the support of the local government, it is quite feasible."

(eastday.com August 2, 2002)