Meet the Beijing restaurateur serving Peking duck fit for an empress

When Zhang Xin enrolled to study law at a university in Beijing in 1998 she had no idea she would one day end up running a Peking duck restaurant.

But for the 12 years since she graduated, that is exactly what she has done, as the general manager and legal representative of the family-owned Liqun Roast Duck, whose food is renowned across the Chinese capital and beyond.

Zhang’s father Zhang Liqun started the business from his home in the Qianmen area of Beijing in 1991, after working for many years as a chef at the acclaimed Quan Ju De Roast Duck restaurant in the city. In the early days, he offered only a delivery service, as the tiny courtyard property he shared with his family was barely big enough for him to prepare and cook the food, let alone accommodate paying customers.

About a year later, he did manage to create a small area for people to eat-in, and that was when things really started to take off.

“I remember clearly the first foreign visitor,” the 69-year-old said. “A young Chinese man had just returned from studying in Germany and he brought his homestay family with him to the restaurant during their visit to Beijing. I don’t know whether the family wrote reviews about my restaurant, but [since then] we’ve always had lots of German customers.”