A famous Beijing restaurant is now launching a campaign among its
69 branches countrywide, advocating customers to order just a
sufficient amount of dishes.
"Welcome to our restaurant, but don't order too much." Such slogans
can be seen at eye-catching places in the restaurant.
Waiters at the restaurant will also give special gifts to those eat
all the food they have ordered.
The restaurant is Quanjude, the
most famous roasted duck restaurant in Beijing with a history of
over 100 years. Everyday the restaurant attracts hundreds of
distinguished guests from all over the world, including many kings,
presidents and prime ministers.
"We want to do something to change the current bad habit of showing
one's status and wealth by devouring food," said Xing Ying, deputy
general manager of Quanjude.
According to the latest official figures, as many as 1,600 tons of
leftover food is dumped everyday in Beijing, and in Shanghai, the
figure is 1,200 tons daily.
Some sociologists believe that in China, at least 4 billion U.S.
dollars and another several million tons of grains are wasted in
ordering excessive dishes in restaurants.
"Our efforts have gained more and more support from all sides,"
said He Ping, assistant general manager of Quanjude's Shanghai
branch, "we now grant the special 'no waste' award to a dozen
groups of customers a day."
"Some other restaurants have decided to follow us," He added.
However, for Quanjude and its followers, their target of
establishing an anti-waste tendency is still a long way to go.
Restaurant customers in China, especially those who want to treat
guests or whose have the privilege to spend public money in slap-up
restaurants, generally have such notions in mind that their face or
prestige depends upon how much money they spend on dishes.
"If all the dishes are eaten, I will feel a loss of face," said
Zhang who is working for a foreign company and actually doesn’t
want to waste money on superfluous dishes.
In
Chinese neighborhoods, news of one person spending 1,000 U.S.
dollars on just one meal can be seen or heard very often, although
generally it is still a poor country.
Xinhua released a news story 14 years ago, saying that large
amounts of food were being wasted everyday in the cafeterias of
various work units of Beijing. However, according to the latest
survey, things are getting even worse today.
"We will have to fight a tough war against the bad habit of wasting
money and food. We will have to learn from other nations in the
world so as to improve ourselves," said Yan Yu, deputy
secretary-general of the China Cuisine Association.
"Anyway, a great-hearted nation will always grow by making progress
in discarding bad habits and absorbing good ones from others," he
added.
(Xinhua News Agency
07/31/2001)