Dishes at Jerry Zheng's The Mixing House in Beijing. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

The bar had a different culture from others where he'd worked. He was not only encouraged to learn from its skilled mixologists, but he also was required to create new cocktail recipes every day.

He quickly developed his cocktail-mixing skills and theoretical knowledge, such as the characters of different spirits, and how to mix them with other ingredients, and says now that he learned more in his time at Twilight than in the past years combined.

"I was enlightened that mixing is the soul to a cocktail, and it is equally important to innovate and to respect the classics."

In 2012, he started to consider opening his own bar in a residential community.