DAYTON, the United States, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese company's cafeteria in the United States started to offer free lunch to its employees this week.

Carrie Younz tried a big bowl of egg drop soup at the cafeteria, also called "Family cafe" by the employees.

"It was fabulous," she said with a beaming smile.

Fuyao Glass America plant in Dayton, Ohio, has opened a 1,200-square-meter cafeteria that can accommodate 1,000 people to dine and rest.

The new cafeteria offer American food as well as Chinese food. "They have different kinds of bread (with) like the dumpling. I don't know all the names, but I just know that I love it," the 38-year-old technical supervisor told Xinhua.

Stephan Marshall has worked for this company for two years and is a shift supervisor in ARG lamination at present. He once worked as a quality control supervisor at an American company.

"No other American companies offer lunch for free. I personally have never seen anything like that," said the guy in his twenties.

Before working for Fuyao, Josh Herby was self-employed.

"How they give us free is unheard of," the 31-year-old first shift supervisor said, adding that he is a fan of Chinese food.

As many employees struggle to make ends meet, "this (free lunch) will help them out," said Suzanne Burden, a supervisor for shift. "They like the free lunch really well. That's a really good thing."

Talking about the company's free lunch, Fuyao Glass America CEO Jeff Liu told Xinhua that "I just want the workers to feel at home here in the factory."

Chinese enterprises follow the principle of respect and love, Cao Dewang, chairman of Chinese Fuyao Group, told Xinhua.

"If you want employees to love, to be loyal to the company, you must learn to love them and respect them first," Cao said.

Younz said it is a "blessing" to work in a Chinese company, adding that "Never in all of my years (have I) ever seen anyone give the people as much here, I mean, bonuses, they're giving us bonus to come to work on time. They're giving us free lunch, so much they're giving us."

Addressing a ceremony held on Monday, Chinese Counsel General in New York Huang Ping said Fuyao's investment has demonstrated that China and the United States can work together.

"Although we have lots of differences in culture, history, in the way we develop our country, it doesn't mean that we cannot work together," Huang said.

At the ceremony, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine recalled the gloomy days when U.S. automaker General Motors closed its assembly plant here in 2008, and then hailed Fuyao's investment in Ohio.

"In total, you have invested nearly 600 million dollars to convert this plant into the world's largest glass production facility," he said.

"Today's celebration is a reminder of the good things that can happen when people from different countries work together for a common goal," the governor said.

As one of the largest glass manufacturers in the world, Fuyao Group has opened five factories in the United States. The Dayton factory now has 2,300 employees.