Forging bonds across the straits

His startup was also a registered project with Tsinghua x-lab, a university-based education platform that offers students a wide range of resources and support for fueling creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, where he received useful information about financial management, raising capital and intellectual property.

"In the context of the mainland's industrial upgrading, innovative startups will take advantage of the large emerging market, adventurous investors, relatively low labor costs, and favorable policies issued by the government," Tsai says, listing the positive stimuli for his company which is based in North China's Hebei province.

Tsai says: "Where can people from Taiwan find another land of opportunity like the Chinese mainland, which shares the same language and a similar culture with us?"

Although he enjoys the fruits of China's development, he has also found that there are drawbacks to being a Taiwan entrepreneur.

"As I was born and grew up in Taiwan, I have weaker connections to the society and people here compared to local residents," says Tsai, adding that normally they choose to run a business with local partners.

Although the registration for their business proved to be time-consuming, Tsai teamed up with a couple local friends, and managed to finally obtain the licence.

"I am piggybacking on the economic strides of the mainland's opening up, and of course the government has given us Taiwan students preferential treatment," says Tsai, "but I would really like to be on a similar footing as my mainland counterparts."