Hilton Garden Inn Zibo Zhangdian is located in the central business district of Zibo, a former industrial hub in East China's Shandong province that has experienced a surge in popularity because of its fabled barbecue restaurant culture.

淄博张店希尔顿花园酒店位于淄博的中心商务区，淄博曾是中国东部山东省的工业中心，因其传说中的烧烤餐厅文化而人气飙升。

About a 10-minute walk from the hotel is a famous food street featuring barbecue restaurants that have been operating for 30 years.

酒店距离一条著名的美食街约有10分钟步行路程，这里有经营了30年的烧烤餐厅。

He and his wife decided to run an online shop on a local e-commerce shopping platform in Thailand and ordered items such as electric rice cookers and barbecue ovens.

他和妻子决定在泰国当地的一个电子商务购物平台上经营一家网店，并订购了电饭煲和烧烤炉等商品。

Many US consumers like to have some seeds and nuts when they are watching baseball games, and others like to eat seeds with barbecue sauce for pleasure," said Wang Bin, vice-president and chief product officer of ChaCha.

The store offers an on-site cooking area where Japanese and Hong Kong cuisine are cooked on-demand, along with barbecue.

They will include more than 23 restaurants and bars, including Michelin Japanese-style barbecue, Cantonese-style food and Hong Kong cafe that was first to enter Chinese mainland, said Raymond Chow, executive president of Hongkong Land Ltd, listed property investment, management and development group, also investor of the mall.

The recent rise in popularity of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, as a winter tourist hotspot, along with last spring's craze for Zibo barbecue in Shandong province, underscores the trend that new drivers of consumption are continually emerging, particularly in the services sector, Wang said.

However, as the profits from his small food stall exceeded 7,000 yuan (about $987) on busy nights, he opted to remain in the bustling market street adorned with the aroma of barbecue and stinky tofu.

More restaurants featuring mala barbecue and hotpot have sprung up in the popular resorts of Bangkok and Phuket.

More and more restaurants featuring mala barbecue and hot pot have sprung up in the popular resorts of Bangkok and Phuket.

The night market also contributed to the vitality, with restaurants, barbecue shops and bars filled with customers.

Tourists also flocked to places such as Zibo, Shandong province, to enjoy its famed barbecue; Chengdu, Sichuan province, to see giant pandas; and Changbai Mountain, Jilin province, to escape the summer heat.

The city has recently been trending on Chinese social media for its barbecue, and saw a sharp increase in tourists over the recent May Day holiday.

Like McDonald's, KFC recently expanded its nighttime menu with barbecue chicken and squid kebabs, which are available between 5 pm and 6 am.

Some 71 percent of respondents said they had been to barbecue stores in the past six months, 60 percent had visited Western fast food chains and 59 percent had dined at night markets or roadside stalls.

At RV camping sites in Dalian, Liaoning province, and Wuyishan and Xiamen in Fujian province, many young travelers ordered barbecue foods, snacks and fruits at night, the Ele.

"The government has helped replace the old gas bottles with smart ones, which can ensure safety in operations; we finally feel relieved," said the owner of a barbecue diner surnamed Xu.

The craze for the "ice city" and related online marketing events are similar to the popularity of Zibo barbecue and Guizhou province's popular Village Basketball Association.

Over the years, KFC and McDonald's have included Chinese-style burgers and snacks in their menu, including KFC's Beijing Chicken barbecue, spicy beef burger, porridge and fried dough sticks for breakfast.

Over the years, KFC and McDonald's have innovated their menu with Chinese-style burgers and snacks, including KFC's Beijing Chicken barbecue, spicy beef burger, porridge and twisted cruller for breakfast.

In 2022, the full-service restaurant, fast food and barbecue sectors showed stable growth, with modest increases in both average revenue per outlet and the number of outlets.

Hainan province saw the highest growth in barbecue restaurant revenue, while Hubei province recorded the highest growth in the number of barbecue outlets.

Beef is a common bestseller in barbecue and hotpot restaurants, and consumers favor steak meals in Western cuisine eateries.

Zibo's barbecue became a viral topic on social media platforms, and attracted a large number of travelers during the May Day holiday.

Baofu town in Huzhou of Zhejiang, for example, will organize a camping and barbecue carnival, where graduates can participate in free activities like rafting and enjoy hotel discounts, local news site zj.

Food was prepared for travelers to barbecue beef and pork.

One such destination was Zibo in Shandong province, which went viral on Douyin for its barbecue.

Zibo, a city in the eastern province of Shandong, has attracted millions of travelers for its delicious barbecue.

"Last month, my wife and I first saw videos on Douyin about Zibo's barbecue, which uses griddle cakes to wrap grilled meat.

During this past month, Zibo's barbecue in East China's Shandong province has gone viral and that has driven its Minsu market to boom with May Day holiday booking numbers jumping twelve-fold from 2019.

Taier Chinese Sauerkraut Fish opened its first overseas store at Changi Airport in Singapore in August 2021, while Meow Barbecue launched its first store on foreign soil in Singapore in September.

There is something even more unbearable than scorching heat while having a barbecue party－mosquitos.

Biz owners receive more capital but still need to beat some challengesOnce the mutton skewers began to sizzle on the barbecue, children at a campsite in Beijing gathered around, eyeing the fat, juicy, slightly burnt mutton to be slid onto their plates.

Campers were having a gathering of several families, and the corner with barbecue shelves became the center of attention after a day of hiking and playing games.

Chinese barbecue, or shaokao, constitutes a significant aspect of the country's cuisine with its unique flavoring techniques and the benefit of broadening people's social circles.

A report by the Guotai Junan Securities showed that Chinese barbecue is second only to hot pot among late-night dining options.

While the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a blow to the catering industry, Chinese barbecue stores remained resilient.

According to Qichacha, a corporate information provider, the number of new barbecue stores has reached 150,000 since the COVID-19 outbreak.

As of December, the total number of barbecue shops nationwide has exceeded 340,000.

"Chinese barbecue is served in individual portions, which we think is more hygienic during the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with a majority of others that are served on plates at the center of a table for people to share.

Affordable, easy to prepare, safe to eat, and good for social interaction, Chinese barbecue has emerged as a top choice for dining during holidays or any time, especially when outdoor activities like camping became a burgeoning trend this summer amid COVID-19 resurgence.

"Chinese barbecue is a popular choice for eating at campsites.

It's fun when several families gather around and chat while putting meat on the barbecue skewers.

Ge Yue, a co-founder of Chongqing-based educational camping startup Starry Woods, said her barbecue suppliers have raised prices for ingredients and equipment twice this summer amid surging demand and a lack of sufficient supplies.

We had to stop providing barbecue at a few camps," Ge said.

Ge said barbecue suppliers at campsites usually offer a one-package service from equipment to ingredients, and even recycling and cleaning.

"The need for vacuum-sealed barbecue packages has spurred a market for vacuum sealers.

Buoyed by increasing demand, online barbecue sales also saw a surge last year, said Mei-tuan, a Chinese food delivery platform.

Among the top 10 cities in terms of barbecue order growth last year, nine are southern cities, and Wuhu in Anhui province ranks first with an annual growth rate of 90.3 percent, said Meituan.

Muwu Barbecue, a Chinese chain with more than 200 outlets across the country, announced to receive 100 million yuan in investment from Tiantu Capital in 2014.

Long Time Ago Barbecue, another barbecue chain, received nearly 100 million yuan in investment in 2020 from BA Capital.

Fengmao Barbecue also received nearly 100 million yuan investment from Fanqie Ziben－translated as Tomato Capital－in the same year.

"Despite progress in attracting capital in the Chinese barbecue market, it is not enough for such a huge market.

Regardless of the booming market, many barbecue business owners still find it hard to profit.

The report by Guotai Junan Securities showed that Chinese barbecue businesses require a huge amount of labor because some of the cooking processes cannot entirely rely on artificial intelligence, resulting in low overall net profit rates.

On average, Chinese barbecue business owners find the break-even point at over 80 percent of total revenue.

Take the Zhengjun Barbecue chain as an example－its table turnover is only an average of 3 times per day, according to the report.

However, unlike other types of restaurants where owners can change menus to add fancy specialties and expensive drinks and upgrade their decor to improve the atmosphere to raise prices or attract more consumers, many Chinese barbecue consumers don't like fancy stores, and they even prefer street grillers as long as the ingredients are fresh and the seasonings are good.

They enjoy the kind of atmosphere that is down-to-earth and in which they can be totally relaxed," said Li Wen-xin, a 46-year-old barbecue store owner in Zibo, Shandong province.

When opening the customer-rating app Dazhongdianping, the top 10 recommended barbecue spots in late August were priced at around 100 yuan per person.

Xiyuan Hotel, a courtyard-style hotel in Beijing, reopened its annual summer night fair on June 11－almost one month later than in a normal year－offering Western and Chinese dishes and barbecue, as well as craft beer.

A staff member of a barbecue restaurant in Beijing's Chaoyang district told China Youth Daily that the restaurant hasn't received many orders since it launched a takeout service.

Very few of them would order barbecue dishes," the staff member said.

"Our branch in Qingnianhui shopping mall joined a third-party delivery platform as soon as we heard the news that dine-in services would be suspended for a while," said Feng Yonghui, owner of Liudinghuo barbecue.

"Customers love eating barbecue at our restaurant, which home cooking cannot replicate.

Guangdong China Travel Service has launched a picnic and camping package for 20 people, which includes camping in a forest, a barbecue and fun activities, according to Information Times.

At RV camping sites in Dalian, Liaoning province as well as Wuyishan and Xiamen of Fujian province, many young travelers ordered barbecue, snacks and mixed fruit at night.

"In addition to camping necessities, the camping base offers all things that you can possibly think of－earplugs, air mattresses, blankets, mosquito repellent, toiletries, meats, barbecue facilities, beer and ice buckets.

In fact, to satisfy such demand, many ramen, barbecue and hotpot restaurants in China have introduced solo-diner-friendly seating arrangements and set up different compartments for such customers.

Farmyards where tourists can cook a barbecue, bed-and-breakfast homestay villages, and various resorts are the most popular accommodations.

Over the period, in terms of in-store purchases, hotpot orders grew tenfold and barbecue restaurant sales jumped nearly sevenfold versus pre-outbreak period.

"Crawfish, hot dry noodles, barbecue and hotpot are the favorites of local residents.

Our host is kind enough to keep meat ready in advance for us to barbecue.

com), a specialized hot-pot and barbecue food materials supply chain with 1,700 branches covering three municipalities and eight provinces, announced it has successfully raised $50 million in capital.

"Chinese consumers at home may not barbecue or bake fish in the style of Americans or Europeans.

The V2L technology will turn electric vehicles into a "super power bank", enabling customers to enjoy an electric barbecue using their own cars.

Wang Xia, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, had a hard time hiring waiters due to rising labor costs, until Hangzhou Dfire Technology Co Ltd contacted her.

The blast happened at around 8:40 pm in a barbecue restaurant in Xingqing district in Ningxia capital city Yinchuan due to a leakage of liquefied petroleum gas.