Hands up if you’d ever heard of the Qingfeng Baozi chain before December of last year? Probably not many of you – but ever since Xi Jinping got peckish one December morning while in traffic on the Second Ring, the fortunes of this humble baozi franchise have changed dramatically.
The Fuxingmen-Xicheng branch of Qingfeng Baozi is where the president – or Uncle Xi, as he was referred to at the time – dropped in on December 29 to showcase his man-of-the-people credentials by joining the queue to buy a set meal of six pork-and-onion steamed buns, a bowl of stir-fried pork liver and a plate of greens. There was widespread amazement over the fact that he not only paid from his own pocket, but even carried the tray to his table, and all without crashing into the gaggle of stunned onlookers surrounding him. Amazing!
We visited the baozi shop ourselves a few days later, where the queues were still long for the newly devised “Presidential Set Meal” (still RMB21). It was over an hour’s wait before we
finally picked up our tray – and this was at the off-peak hour of 4pm. Hordes of photographers and tourists were buzzing around outside, while inside the overworked fuwuyuan were probably cursing their luck at having to deal with the wave after wave of customers.
The place had essentially turned into a fast-food shrine, with people making the pilgrimage from far and wide (it has since become a magnet for petitioners). China Daily reported a 40 percent sales-spike for the chain. On our visit, a couple from Shenyang were having their photo taken on the seat Xi was supposed to have used. “I hope it will bring me luck,” the husband told us. “According to our beliefs, people who become the top man in this big country must have some mysterious powers.”
The man said he had searched online to find the right seat, although we didn’t have the heart to tell him that, after the president left, the restaurant immediately took away the actual chair he sat on, perhaps to exhibit at HQ or sell at auction. The proud couple, meanwhile, left the shop with 40 baozi.
Lin Wen, a lawyer, saw it as a version of “modern red tourism,” where tourists follow in the footsteps of former leaders, such as retracing route of the Long March. One holidaymaker, who took the 300km trip from Hebei, believes that, aside from just curiosity, people are drawn to show support for what Xi is doing. “It symbolizes the crackdown on corruption,” she told us. “Laobaixing [common people] need to voice their support of this. We hope that such policies will continue. A crackdown on extravagance and waste is something that the government should always be focusing on.” KK
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