Quanjude
The restaurant of Quanjude Roast Duck (全聚德烤鸭) was established in 1864, with the original location of its headquarters being on the Qianmen Dajie of Beijing; it moved to Hepingmen Dajie in 1979.
With regard to the origin of Quanjude, there was a person called Yang Quanren. After arriving in Beijing in the mid-18th century, after fleeing from famine in Hebei Province, he sold chickens and ducks in the meat market of Qianmen. As accumulating some capital, he bought a bankrupt dry fruit shop in the meat market in 1864 and opened an oven shop, renaming it as "Quanjude" (namely the present Qianmen Quanjude Duck). He roasted the duck over a naked fire, and called it "Gualu Roasted Duck (duck roasted over fire)". The business soon prospered.
After the foundation of People's Republic of China in 1949, Quanjude increased constantly and gradually formed series of delicacies represented by Quanjude Roasted Duck. In May 1993, on the base of the Peking Quanjude, Qianmen Quanjude and Wangfujing Quanjude, it set up a large scale group enterprise, Beijing Quanjude Roast Duck Group Corporation, and at the same time, it gathered more than 60 member enterprises to establish the Beijing Quanjude Group.
The presidents, premiers and leaders in about 200 countries such as the former UN Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali, the late US President Richard Nixon, late British Prime Minister Edward Heath, former Japanese premier Kaifu Toshiki, former Singapore's senior minister Lee Kuan Yew, the late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk, dined there.
