Restaurants about to sell out for Spring feast
(Chinanews)
Updated: 2005-12-09 16:19

Although the Spring Festival is still more than a month away, Beijing's catering industry has already unveiled its New Year's Eve banquet reservation campaign. According to the latest statistics from the industry, more than 500 restaurants are already fully booked on the eve of Chinese New Year.

It was learned from the old brand name restaurant Judehuatian Holdings Co., Ltd. with its more than forty branches that since November the company has received large number of group bookings for New Year's Day and Chinese New Year's Eve dinners. This scramble for reservations so far ahead of the actual holidays is hard to imagine in the past.

On December 7th, Miss Zhang successfully booked a dinner table on New Year's Eve at Quyuan Restaurant located on Zhanlan Road. She told reporters she already fretted in the last two years over making such bookings at her favorite restaurants. Now that the reservation has been confirmed, she felt relieved. According to this restaurant, some eager beaver consumers made their bookings as early as this October.

A manager at Quanjude Restaurant said that most of the advance bookings for New Year's Eve in the past were from permanent residents in the capital. But in recent years, more and more out-of-towners made bookings and arrived in Beijing as travelers on New Year's Eve for dinner. In particular, some visitors from Hong Kong and Macau liked to spend that time of the year in the north, which has formed a new consumption trend.

Deputy general manager Jia Feiyue at Judehuatian mentioned that old timer restaurants like his always prepared well and early for the expected onrush of bookings ahead of New Year's Day and Chinese New Year. Every restaurant would tout its "house specialty" for their customers on New Year's Eve. His restaurant has received reservation mostly in the RMB 800 to 1500 price range (US$100 to 200), about the same as last year.