Twenty-three years after opening its first restaurant, China’s Haidilao hot pot chain is hotter than ever. With its special business model and service creativity, people happily wait in line for two hours to get a table. At Haidilao, even the lonely eaters never eat alone – they get a teddy bear to dine with them.It has been over two decades since Zhang Yong, the owner of Haidilao (海底捞), set up his first in Jianyang, Sichuan, with a mere investment of 10,000 yuan (±1470$).
Haidilao beef hot pot. Taste: Spicy Features: Beef belly What’s in package: 3 kinds of meat, 7 kinds vegetables. Haidilao, as a famous Chinese hot pot restaurant, however the self-heating hot pot is disappointing. Its packaging is very beautiful, but the weight is not so good, it seems not enough for an adult. China's Spicy Hotpot Billionaire Is Ready to Take on the World By. Dexter Roberts. Haidilao specializes in spicy Sichuan hotpot dishes featuring a spicy broth and choices of meat, seafood.
Now, 23 years later, it has become the dominant hot pot chain in the country. The restaurant is popular across China, where it has an annual turnover of approximately 450 million dollars.In Beijing alone, the chain has. From Shanghai to Shenzhen, Haidilao has 176 outlets in 53 Chinese cities.
The chain opens 20 new restaurants every year. By now, Haidilao has over 15,000 people working for them and has also gone international, with more restaurants opening up in Singapore, the USA, and Seoul.How did a restaurant serving such a traditional and ubiquitous Chinese dish become such a success?
Hot pot restaurants, where fresh meat and vegetables are dipped in simmering broth, are extremely common across China. But Zhang Yong chose to market Haidilao and its authentic Sichuan hot pot with an innovative strategy: high-service, high-tech, and high-quality.High-Service Hot Pot: “Brainwashing” StaffExcept for the tasty hotpot, anyone who has ever visited Haidilao will surely remember one thing: here, you can get a free manicure while you wait.
The restaurant has become so popular that waiting in line for one or two hours to get a table is no exception. But with an entertainment area that provides customers with board games, free snacks, drinks, manicures, massages, and even shoe polish services, queuing has become part of the Haidilao experience.The ‘entertainment area’ is just of the many ways in which Haidilao accommodates to its customers’ desires. There is ample staff for every table. Customers with longer hair get free hairbands to tie their hair back while eating. Customers with glasses are provided with eyeglass cleaning tissue. There are special aprons to avoid stained clothing, and even handbags get their own protection.
At the Haidilao toilets, staff will hand out hand towels and provide customers with any toiletry items they may need.Anyone working at Haidilao is thoroughly trained. On question-and-answer platform, former Haidilao servers shared their experiences of working at the restaurant. They explain that all Haidilao workers have to follow a compulsory training after they are accepted to come work at the restaurant.The training is provided by people who have worked at the chain for at least 3 to 5 years, who teach new workers about corporate culture and Haidilao food.
The staff learns how to welcome guests, how to make small talk to set a good atmosphere, and learn about the restaurant rules (always smile, never quarrel with customers, etc).According to some former workers, working at Haidilao is a bittersweet experience. Whatever Jack Ma does or says makes headlines in China. Last week’s anti-dog meat protests in South Korea have triggered discussions on Chinese social media on the status quo of the dog meat industry in China. An overview of the sentiments on social media and the background of dog eating in the PRC.South Korea’s dog meat industry made headlines on Friday after protesters in Seoul, joined by actress Kim Basinger, an end to the decade-old dog meat trade in the country.Not far from the protesters were farmers who raise dogs that are sold to restaurants. They brought steamed dog meat and ate it with kimchi.In China, where the eating of dog meat has a long history, the Seoul protests triggered some discussions on social media.Kim Basinger joins protest against the dog meat trade in Seoul— CNN International (@cnni)The hashtags “Hundred People Gather in South Korea to Stop the Eating of Dog Meat” (##) and “Big Protest in South Korea against Eating of Dog Meat” (##) received over 83 million views.In South Korea, the overall demand for dog meat has over the years. Earlier this month, one of the largest dog meat markets in the country, the Gupo dog meat market, was. In November of 2018, Seongnam city already demolished South Korea’s largest dog slaughterhouse.Friday’s protesters hope to shut down dog meat trade in the country completely.
Dog meat restaurant in Jilin.“I also raise dogs, I also love dogs,” another commenter says: “But I think that if they legally breed dogs for the dog meat industry, then we have no right to prevent them from doing so.”“I don’t eat dog meat, but I don’t oppose it, as long as it’s legal it’s ok,” with others writing: “I am opposed to the eating of any living creature.”“Eating dog is not illegal, why all this sentimental nonsense? Why don’t you also defend chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, sheep, and cows?!”“As long as they’re not abused, I don’t see a problem with it.”“Dog meat is tasty,” one from Zhejiang writes: “I like it, although I rarely eat it. I don’t see a problem with it, it’s a personal choice.”SHORT OVERVIEW OF DOG EATING IN CHINA“To them, dog meat was just like any other meat.”The tradition of dog eating in China can be traced back as far as the Shang Dynasty (ca. Dog meat dish, via Sohu.com.Especially in summer, dog’s flesh is believed to serve as an antidote against summer heat, and to be nutritious and beneficial as a source to enhance male virility or to boost the liver. Even at present, Chinese media the eating of dog meat to boost the immune system and help stimulate better blood circulation.It should be noted that although China has a long history of dog meat consumption, it also has a long history of dog domestication and dog-human comradery. Dogs were pets, guarded the house, used in hunting, and also used in rituals of sacrifice.
Ceramic crouching dog, excavated from Henan burial site, dating from Han Dynasty, 206BC-220AD, Henan Museum.Most of the 20th century (1900-1978) was a tough time for people in mainland China, and it was a tough time for dogs too. In many times, there was barely enough food to eat, and under Mao’s rule, dogs were considered “parasites” and were outlawed as pets (Coren 2018; Li et al 2017, 514).Those who kept pets were seen as part of the ‘bourgeoisie,’ and during the Cultural Revolution, pet dogs were reportedly seized and beaten to death in front of their owners (Coren 2008, ch. 21).Much has changed since those days. Vendor selling dog meat at the Yulin festival, image via Sina Video/Miaopai.A 2016 held among 2000 people from various ages and places in China found that 64% of the people opposed to the festival, 52% thinks that dog meat should be banned in China, and 70% said they had never had dog meat themselves.“Don’t go, don’t eat it, don’t pay attention to it.
When there’s no business, the killing will stop,” one Weibo suggests.A MURKY MARKET“There does not seem to be a Chinese dog meat market that is both cruel-free and completely legal.”Apart from Yulin, the eating of dog meat is barely a celebrated tradition in China anymore.For a from 2015, we could still find 122 restaurants listed as ‘dog meat’ specialty restaurants in the city of Beijing on restaurant site Dianping. But at present, Dianping no longer publicly lists any restaurants when searching for ‘dog meat’ specialty places (note that there still are restaurants serving dog meat, but they might not be listed due to controversy or for fear for activists).China’s biggest e-commerce websites sell different herb mixes for dog stews or dog meat hotpots (see tweet below), but the market could hardly be called thriving.What to put on a package for spicy dog meat stew? A happy dog, of course?— Manya Koetse (@manyapan)Yet, despite all those people on Chinese social media saying that eating dog meat should not be a problem for those who still want to eat it, China’s dog meat market does actually have a problem.China has no law that bans the eating of dogs; eating dog meat is a personal freedom. But what makes the issue murky and troublesome is that China actually has no large-scale legal dog farms, nor legal dog slaughterhouses.The very few dog farms in existence in China would never be adequate to provide the meat for the industry in southern China, let alone for the estimated 10,000+ dogs slaughtered in Yulin every year.It is therefore not clear where the dogs that are used for their meat in China come from. Are they stray dogs?
Are they stolen from the streets? And if so, would this not be considered illegal (Brown 2018; Cao 2014; Yan 2015, 46)?Every now and then scandals appear in the media of restaurants slaughtering and killing dogs that were actually people’s pets (for example, in Jilin in 2018 or this year).Another issue making the dog meat market a problematic one is the cruel treatment of the dogs.China has seen countless of food scandals over the years, and some of them involve the selling of poisoned dog meat. As a result, many people have a general distrust in (frozen) meat products and want to make sure they are consuming good quality meat.Dog meat markets such as Yulin, therefore, often sell living dogs.
They are virtually like ‘wet markets’ for dogs, where those who want to eat dog meat can do so with the assurance that the meat they are eating is fresh and safe. The dogs are slaughtered at the spot or are sold alive for home consumption (Brown 2018).