It is really not certain when Chang Pi-shih first came to the attention of Ch'ing policy makers. As an extremely wealthy businessman and community leader he was probably a leading supporter of many of the charitable drives begun by Tso Ping-lung. The Lat Pau does refer to his aid in flood relief in the summer of 1889. Chang tells us that he was passing through Hong Kong in 1891 and, on that occasion, he received a cable from Sheng Hsuan-huai, the noted modernizer, inviting him to come north to Chefoo to discuss the management of railroads, mines and other matters. It is hard to believe that Sheng would have issued such an invitation if the two did not already know each other. Even if this was to be their first meeting, Chang's fame clearly had already spread to China.

Sometime in 1892, after Huang had established the consulate-general in Singapore and further negotiations with the British had progressed to the point of dealing in specifics, the name of Chang Pi-shih was formally presented as a candidate for the first vice-consular position at Penang.

In the summer of 1893, about three months after Chang actually assumed his new office, Hsueh Fu-ch'eng informed the Tsungli Yamen that the new vice-consulate had been opened.