The daily sales of crayfish have broken 10,000 jin, popular restaurants stay busy all day at peak hours, and Beijing’s dining popularity during the long holiday exceeds expectations.

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Beijing News (XinJing Daily), reported by Wang Ping: Fresh crayfish sold more than 10,000 jin per day, an aunt making sugary pancakes said she “can’t keep flipping anymore,” and popular dining has been “the busiest mealtimes all day” … During the just-passed Qingming Festival holiday, although it was short, the heat was “through the roof”—a common feeling shared by many food and beverage businesses and consumers. A consumption roundup for the Qingming holiday released by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce shows that, among key monitored dining segments, sales revenue increased by 5.3% year over year. On April 7, the Beijing News reporter learned from executives at multiple well-known food and beverage enterprises that, according to the comprehensive roundup data, the “hotness” of the three-day mini-holiday exceeded estimates made before the holiday. As temperatures gradually rise, many restaurant chains have begun preparing for the arrival of the peak dining season and “night-time economy.”

During the Qingming mini-holiday in Beijing, old-brand brands under Beijing Huatian—such as Gulou Makai Restaurant, Tongchun Garden, Tongheju, and Qingfeng Baozi Shop—along with restaurants like Huifeng Dumpling Lou, saw a minor surge in customer traffic. At Gulou Makai Restaurant, daily dine-in service is at full capacity. In the restaurant’s delivery window, the sesame-sauce sugary pancake is a “viral” item that often has long lines on ordinary days. As demand from day-trip and outing activities increases, during the mini-holiday, the sesame-sauce sugary pancake window had lines tens of meters long every day, with daily sales exceeding 800 pieces, and the pancake-making aunt said, “I can’t flip anymore.”

Family gatherings are one of the keywords for dining during the Qingming mini-holiday. Qingming falls within the “golden tasting period” for spring vegetables. At Tongheju, Tongchun Garden, Gulou Makai Restaurant, Qingfeng Baozi Shop, Huatian Two Friends Residence, Huatian Yanji Restaurant, and other old brands, as well as Huifeng Restaurant, Xin Chuan Noodle House, and Xiangfei Roasted Chicken, the “Huaitian Fresh Bamboo Shoot Festival” not only lets consumers taste seasonal limited-time dishes such as spring bamboo shoots braised with scallions, four treasures of spring, stir-fried bamboo shoots with fragrant dried tofu, stir-fried bamboo shoots with rapeseed and five-spice pork, stir-fried shepherd’s purse shrimp with spring bamboo shoots, and chili-scented spring bamboo shoots layered pork pies, but it also sells multiple ingredients that match dishes served for dine-in, as well as chef’s meal packages, so customers can keep savoring spring at home. A related executive from Beijing Huatian said that the “Huaitian Fresh Bamboo Shoot Festival” has entered its April special tasting season. Starting April 1, the fresh bamboo shoots used at the stores come from water bamboo shoots harvested in Dazhou City, Dazhu County, Sichuan Province. After being harvested fresh on the day, the water bamboo shoots are delivered directly to the kitchen the next day, with a limited-time supply for one month.

Spring outings and the arrival of spring vegetables—the Qingming holiday saw a mini peak in Beijing’s dining consumption. Photos provided by respondents

Warmer weather keeps releasing dining consumption momentum. The Beijing News reporter learned from multiple popular restaurants such as Chef Fei’s spicy-fried pork with chili that “mealtimes are the peak all day” is the “norm” during the three-day mini-holiday. Regarding this, a relevant executive from Chef Fei’s spicy-fried pork with chili told the Beijing News reporter that the highest mealtime peak during the holiday was on April 5. That day, once dinner started at 11:00 a.m., multiple stores immediately showed that they were already forming lines for ticket numbers. During the mealtime peak, at the same time slots, the number of people waiting—such as at Chef Fei’s Beijing Daxing Hui 聚店, Xizhimen Century? (K? Dec? ) (as listed: Xizhimen Cade? ), Chaoyang Mixc? (as listed: Chaoyang San Sheng Hui), and West Dan Da Yue Cheng stores—was all over 300 tables or more. It is understood that Chef Fei already has nearly 40 directly operated stores in Beijing. Among them, the Yitijgang store in Wangjing opened before the Qingming Festival. Next, Chef Fei will also open new stores to reduce how long customers have to wait in line; the Wangjing V·HUB store is scheduled to open in May.

During this Qingming mini-holiday, Guijie—Beijing’s “late-night snack destination”—has already shown the heat of the “night-time economy.” Zhang Shengtao, deputy general manager of Beijing Huda Catering, said in an interview with the Beijing News reporter that before the Qingming holiday, they had expected customer traffic and revenue to grow by no more than 10%. “The actual figures are that customer traffic grew by 14% and revenue grew by 11.3%, exceeding expectations.” Zhang Shengtao told the Beijing News reporter that during the holiday, the company’s Huda Restaurant flagship store had as many as 5,982 tables placed into the queue for number tickets in a single day, and the table turnover rate reached an astonishing 900%. The daily sales of crayfish exceeded 10,000 jin. Zhang Shengtao said that during the Qingming holiday, the main customer groups were visitors who went out for spring outings and local young customers; among all orders, 15% were delivery orders, with delivery destinations mainly pointing to hotels and outdoor camping sites.

The Beijing News reporter also learned in interviews that, with “late-night snack C-position” items like crayfish entering their sales peak starting in April, Beijing’s “night-time economy” is also building momentum. Huda Restaurant has currently extended operating hours at each of its locations, and in mid-April it plans to open outdoor terraces. Zhang Shengtao explained that regarding staffing, to handle the peak season, they have increased headcount by 5% on top of the existing headcount allocation at original positions.

Edited by Wang Lin

Proofread by Yang Li