Returning to Beijing he would go on to establish himself within the squad and by the 2003 league season he would aid the team to win the 2003 Chinese FA Cup.
[1] He became the first Chinese player ever to be banned for using drugs in football and was personally fined an undisclosed amount.
Zhang claimed his innocence by saying he accidentally took the substance for a remedy to his cold, however his apologies were not enough for the Chinese youth team and they permanently dropped him from their squad once more.
Zhang Shuai's career would go from strength to strength, winning his first senior international cap for China against Thailand in a friendly on May 16, 2007 in a 1–0 defeat where despite the defeat his performance was good enough for him to become a regular within the squad and go to the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.
This saw him to being forced into the reserve team and frozen out of the squad, Zhang would later announce that he decided to retire from association football because of this unfair punishment.