"Nothing is difficult to the man (who) will try", and other inspirational sayings are written in English each day on a small blackboard by Zong Mingjun, the 26-year-old owner of a snack shop in Jiangxi University of Science and Technology.

He hangs the blackboard in his shop and changes the phrase every day, the Jiangnan City Daily in Nanchang, the capital of Jiangxi province, reported.

"I loved English when I was at school. I wanted to share the inspirational sentences that I accumulated with people who come to my shop in their daily life. I hoped to make friends with them in this way," he said.

Zong's move attracted great attention on the campus, the report said.

He now sells up to 400 earthenware bowls of soup each day, a sharp increase on the about 70 pots he sold previously, as many students come to see his well-known blackboard and read the English words.