Xi Has the Common Touch

Xi Jinping made an unannounced visit to a Beijing restaurant yesterday

Millions of Chinese are already making their way home for Spring Festival that starts on February 5. Many major cities are emptying out and people are heading on trains, buses and planes for the next week or so.

Yesterday Chinese President Xi Jinping surprised diners by dropping into a small restaurant in Beijing. On state television Xi was seen asking how much a bowl of rice noodles was and how long the owners had been in the city.

He praised deliverymen for being like diligent bees

As diners stood up to take pictures, he told them not to stop eating on his account. "I'm just passing through," he said.

The last time Xi unexpectedly interacted with the public was in 2014 when he visited courtyard homes and chatted with passers-by on one particularly smoggy day.

This time the Chinese President also chatted with deliverymen who spend all day delivering packages around Beijing.

"You are the most diligent, like diligent bees, traveling here and there and being exposed to the sun and rain. It's not easy," Xi told them.

He asked if they would be going home for Spring Festival, and one replied in the affirmative. The rest were probably thinking, "I need to feed my family", or "The boss made me work".

Xi even wrapped dumplings, but how did they look?

Xi also visited policemen and even made dumplings with residents in a courtyard building in Qianmen.

We have the photographic, but how did his dumplings look?

Quanjude Celebrates 150 Years

Roasting the ducks over wood from fruit trees gives the birds a sweet taste

A Beijing institution, Quanjude Peking Duck celebrates its 150th anniversary this year.

It used to be the place for the roast bird called kaoya (烤鸭), as the restaurant is covered with pictures of VIPs who have eaten there, but most prominent are the photographs of then US President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger tucking into Peking Duck in 1972.

The original Quanjude location in Qianmen West

When I first visited China in 1985, we went to that restaurant and I couldn't understand why these famous people would like eating Quanjude's roast duck because it was so oily! And all they had on the menu was every other duck part, such as heart, liver, intestines, web, minced duck wrapped in cabbage, duck soup... was that all the restaurant served?

Then when I came back in 2007, I was so relieved to learn there was an alternative place -- Da Dong Roast Duck, and it is one of my favourite places, not only because the ducks are roasted a bit longer to let the grease drip off and make the skin crispier, but also because the restaurant features a number of other non-duck dishes that are just as delicious.

Perhaps that's why Quanjude is so anxious to trumpet its big anniversary this year, and marking the occasion with the opening of a museum in its Beijing restaurant.

The museum features 20 models that show each stage in preparing the famous dish. One of the stages shows the bird being pumped full of air to separate the skin from the fat.

A perfectly roasted duck before its carved...

How many people will check out the museum is hard to say, especially with hungry stomachs... nevertheless Quanjude boasts it has served 196 million ducks worldwide -- including a new branch in Melbourne!

That's a lot of ducks in 150 years...

Beijing Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant

14 Qianmen Xidajie
Beijing
(86 10) 6511 2418

quanjude.com.cn (in Chinese)