After starting work, he held positions successively as the Deputy Director and Deputy Director-General of the Research Office at the Guangzhou Social Sciences Research Institute (during which time, from September 1980 to July 1985, he attended undergraduate correspondence courses in the Department of Political Education at South China Normal University); in August 1986, he was appointed as the Deputy Minister of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee Publicity Department; in November 1986, he became the Secretary of the Dongshan District Committee of Guangzhou; in March 1990, he took office as the Secretary of the Tianhe District Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the District People's Congress of Guangzhou; in November 1992, he was named as a Member of the Standing Committee of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee, and also served as the Party Committee Secretary and Director of the Management Committee of the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone and Guangzhou Bonded Area; in March 1993,