In Zibo, China’s barbecue capital, a distant deadly gas blast puts safety in the spotlight

Tourists continued to flock to the city during the Dragon Boat festival, looking for a taste of the dining sensation

More than a thousand kilometres away, people in Yinchuan were coming to terms with a restaurant explosion that killed 31

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Zibo’s barbecue offerings remain a big drawcard over the Dragon Boat festival break this year. Photo: Kinling Lo

Published: 12:00pm, 25 Jun 2023Updated: 12:00pm, 25 Jun 2023

For restaurant owners in the newly crowned barbecue capital of China, business was thriving as usual on Friday, the midpoint of the three-day Dragon Boat festival.

The music was loud, every restaurant was at capacity and the meat skewers were being devoured as soon as they came off the grill.

Two days after 31 people were killed in a massive blast at a barbecue restaurant in Yinchuan, holiday diners appeared undeterred in Zibo, a city more than a thousand kilometres to the east.

“This is how we do it safely,” Zhao Ni, the manager of a 30-year-old barbecue chain in Zibo, said as she set up a small metal brazier in front of her guests.

“We don’t even use gas for our barbecue, we use charcoal. It is our tradition.”

The deadly explosion in Yinchuan, in Ningxia, on Wednesday was caused by a leak from a liquefied gas tank.

The effects of the blast were felt not only in Yinchuan, where authorities apologised for the tragedy, but throughout the country, with President Xi Jinping ordering a nationwide campaign to identify and remedy fire hazards.

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