Zhang Hongchao

Asian Cover Figure | Zhang Hongchao: 27 Years Devoted to a Cup of Tea, Building a Global Empire from Humble Beginnings

Asian "Cover Figure" Magazine · Vision

Issue No. 045-ACF-GJ-2026

A single milk tea shop, selling lemonade at just 4 yuan a cup, moves billions of cups a year and sustains a market capitalization of hundreds of billions. From a tricycle-shaved ice stall on the streets of Zhengzhou to over 60,000 stores worldwide, founder Zhang Hongchao took 27 years. He is no genius, no trend-chaser — he simply drove the cost of an affordable cup of tea to its absolute limit, from every lemon, every ton of syrup, to the rent of each of his 60,000 global outlets.

While new tea brands competed for premium pricing, traffic-driven narratives, and capital extravagance, Zhang Hongchao chose to swim against the current, treating affordability as a belief and public welfare as his foundation, forging a globally leading long-term path grounded in everyday life. Starting with just 3,000 yuan and twenty-seven years of perseverance, he turned an ordinary person's affordable tea drink into the world's largest commercial legend by store count.

I. From Shangqiu Village to Zhengzhou Streets: A 3,000 Yuan Entrepreneurial Beginning

In 1978, Zhang Hongchao was born into an ordinary rural family in Shangqiu, Henan Province. With no privileged starting point and no ready-made resources, he entered society at a young age, navigating various industries — taking odd jobs, running small businesses, learning through real-world hardship and experiencing the most authentic texture of everyday life. Those humble yet grueling years taught him early the meaning of perseverance and gave him a visceral understanding of ordinary people's consumption needs.

In 1997, at age 19, Zhang Hongchao made a pivotal life decision. Armed with 3,000 yuan his grandmother had painstakingly saved, he set up a simple shaved ice stall in an urban village in Zhengzhou, naming it "Cold Current Shaved Ice." There was no polished décor, no ample funding, no mature business model — this tiny stall was the seed of what would become Mixue Bingcheng (Honey Ice City) and his entrepreneurial dream.

The early days of entrepreneurship were filled with hardship. Scorching summer sun soaked his clothes with sweat; biting winter winds left his hands swollen and red from constant contact with ice water. When equipment was rudimentary, he modified it himself. When customers were inconsistent, he patiently served every one. When funds were tight, he accounted for every penny. The stall was relocated several times; business rose and fell. At the most difficult moments, he could barely cover daily expenses, and people around him urged him to give up. But Zhang Hongchao never bowed. He believed that as long as he maintained quality, sincerity, and honesty, even a small business could achieve a great future.

In those early years running shops in Zhengzhou's urban villages, Zhang Hongchao would often pedal his tricycle several kilometers to fetch raw materials himself just to save a few dozen yuan in transport fees. Those days carried no glamour, but they gave him a muscle-memory-level sensitivity to the cost of "getting what you pay for."

II. Naming It Mixue Bingcheng: A 1 Yuan Ice Cream and the Commitment to "Quality at Fair Prices"

In 2000, Zhang Hongchao officially renamed the shop "Mixue Bingcheng" (Honey Ice City), committing fully to the freshly made beverage industry. From the brand's very first day, he established a clear and unwavering positioning: creating high-value beverages that ordinary people could afford, trust, and enjoy.

As the industry pursued packaging upgrades, conceptual innovation, and rising prices, Zhang Hongchao remained clear-headed. He did not pursue flashy marketing, hype empty concepts, or blindly follow price increases. Instead, he devoted all his energy to the product itself, focusing on consistent taste, reliable quality, and affordable pricing. In his view, the core value of a drink is simply that it tastes good, is safe, and is honest — everything else is superfluous.

In 2005, he launched a 1 yuan ice cream, sweeping the market with extremely low pricing. At the time, comparable products were generally priced much higher; a quality ice cream at 1 yuan virtually broke industry conventions. Through extreme cost control, stable output standards, and solid ingredient selection, he brought high-quality soft-serve cones to streets and alleys, into the daily lives of students, office workers, and community residents. This product had no large-scale advertising — it spread entirely through word of mouth, quickly becoming a phenomenon-level hit and embedding the "quality at fair prices" label deep into Mixue Bingcheng's brand DNA.

Mixue Bingcheng's gross margin has long been lower than most tea beverage brands. This business can only be sustained through sheer scale.

From that point on, Mixue Bingcheng established its stance of standing with the masses: not catering to a niche elite, but building a universally accessible business; not chasing short-term profits, but earning long-term trust.

III. Brothers United, Deep Supply Chain Mastery: Building the Foundation for Long-Term Growth

In 2007, his younger brother Zhang Hongfu officially joined, working alongside Zhang Hongchao as co-founder. The two divided responsibilities clearly with complementary strengths, forming a stable and highly efficient partnership. Zhang Hongchao focused on product R&D, supply chain development, and safeguarding the brand's original vision, firmly holding the development direction and quality baseline; Zhang Hongfu oversaw operations management, store expansion, and market execution, driving the brand's large-scale, systematic growth. Together, the brothers transformed Mixue Bingcheng from a regional shop into a national chain brand.

As store numbers grew rapidly, industry vulnerabilities surfaced. Most tea brands relied heavily on external suppliers, keeping costs high, quality inconsistent, and long-term affordable pricing unsustainable. Zhang Hongchao recognized deeply that without a self-controlled supply chain, the brand had no real future; to sustain affordable pricing long-term, core processes had to be kept in-house.

Starting in 2012, he committed significant capital and effort to building a fully self-owned supply chain. From raw material cultivation and procurement, processing and manufacturing, warehousing, to nationwide logistics distribution, he built a complete closed loop step by step. Tea leaves, lemons, syrup, milk bases, packaging materials — all core elements came under autonomous control. While competitors raced to expand store counts, Zhang Hongchao chose to focus on building backend moats. This path required heavy investment, long cycles, and slow returns, yet it became the critical foundation enabling Mixue Bingcheng to weather industry cycles, resist risks, and maintain consistent quality.

Zhang Hongchao's decision logic was remarkably simple — he calculated the big picture. Building factories seemed asset-heavy, but if it could reduce per-cup raw material costs by even one tenth of a yuan, across billions of cups sold annually, that was profit no one else could take away. He once told his internal team this felt more solid than raising prices.

With its integrated supply chain, Mixue Bingcheng achieved efficient cost control and stable quality output, providing a solid guarantee for long-term affordability. Classic products like the 4-yuan lemonade and 6-yuan pearl milk tea have maintained stable prices for years, becoming everyday consumption memories for generations. This is not sentimentality — it is the result of supply chain efficiency.

IV. Advancing Quietly, Staying Steadfast in the Face of Traffic

Throughout the brand's rapid growth, Zhang Hongchao maintained a low-key, pragmatic personal style. He rarely appeared publicly, avoided industry hype, did not build a personal IP, did not chase capital trends, and never focused energy on external promotion. Even as Mixue Bingcheng's stores spread across the nation and its influence grew, he maintained his original entrepreneur's mindset, devoting time and energy to products, supply chain, and internal systems — steady, reserved, grounded, unpretentious.

In 2021, the Mixue Bingcheng theme song unexpectedly went viral across the internet, its simple catchy melody spreading to every corner of the country, triggering explosive growth in national brand recognition. The sudden surge of traffic and attention placed the brand under the spotlight, yet Zhang Hongchao remained calm and restrained. He did not exploit the moment for hype, did not blindly expand, did not alter the brand's rhythm, but continued steadily along the established direction, converting traffic into long-term trust and transforming heat into brand strength.

This clarity and composure in the face of viral traffic is especially rare in today's frenetic commercial environment. Zhang Hongchao has always believed that a brand's vitality comes from products and users, not momentary buzz.

Mixue Bingcheng's management philosophy is distinctive. Since revenue comes primarily from the supply chain, headquarters cares more about whether stores "survive long and stay out of trouble." Its supervision teams are therefore evaluated more on standardization and food safety than on pure sales performance. Zhang Hongchao believes that opening stores fast is headquarters' skill, but keeping tens of thousands of stores clean and affordable for a decade — that is real management mastery.

V. Hong Kong Stock Exchange Listing: From Street Stall to Global Tea Beverage Benchmark

In 2025, Mixue Bingcheng listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with market capitalization exceeding HK$100 billion. Global stores surpassed 60,000, making it the largest brand by store count in the freshly made beverage industry.

After 27 years, he never learned to be a "capitalist" — he remained the "product manager" who feared customers overpaying.

Zhang Hongchao's starting point was a 3,000 yuan shaved ice stall. After 27 years, he didn't become a different person; he simply kept doing one thing.

Mixue Bingcheng's distinction lies not in doing what others couldn't, but in being willing to keep doing what others considered "too slow."

Summary

Zhang Hongchao spent 27 years turning an affordable tea drink into the world's largest by scale. No luck, no trend-chasing. Behind the 4-yuan lemonade lies cost and supply chain optimized to the extreme.

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