SHANGHAI, Aug. 25 -- ZHOU Yuxiu, a former laid-off worker, is a classic example of how a woman aged 50 can start a new career ... with a cool idea.

After two years of painstaking research and experiments on several thousand ordinary umbrellas, Zhou and her colleagues invented a car sunshade.

It was awarded second prize in the national Spark Cup Creation & Invention Competition, and it's easy to understand why.

Zhou's brainchild can reduce the temperature inside a sedan parked in the sun by 20 to 30 degrees Centigrade. It has two national patents and has been named as an energy-conservation product by local government.

"Many people about my age choose to enjoy retirement life, but I prefer to do something," Zhou said. "I believe I can hew out a career for myself through hard work."

Zhou set up a company to promote her invention in June and has received provincial orders for several thousand.

"We are looking for an agent to deal with local market development, which is expected to be extremely large," she said. "The sunshade is priced at 300 yuan (US$40)."

Usually the temperature inside an idle sedan in the sun is estimated at 50 to 70 degrees.

"When the engine is started, it takes a long time before the temperature drops via the air-conditioner," she said. "It is a waste of time and gas.

"I recommended the car sunshade to some of my friends who later told me that about 50 to 60 liters of gas could be saved in one summer by using the product."

Zhou's invention is rectangular and covers the body of a sedan from the engine to the trunk. However, the large object is only half a meter long and weighs just 1.8 kilograms when folded up.

A special feature of the sunshade is that its frame is made of the material used in fishing rods.

"We adopted this material as it is flexible, firm, rust proof and won't scratch the surface of the sedan."

Besides six small hooks to fix the sunshade onto the sedan, Zhou made a special design on the bottom of the sunshade handle.

"I install a lock at the bottom in case of theft and use a kind of special rubber to stick the lock onto the windshield," she said.

"The material is powerful enough to sustain a weight of 80 kilograms so that it can ensure the safety of the sunshade."