Tailored to match its décor and name perfectly, Dazhaimen's cuisine originates from epicurean nobles, government officials and rich merchants of bygone Beijing who, when catering for private family dinners, engaged specialist cooks who combined local dishes with palace cuisine.

Creating an authentic dining experience as a guest of a noble family, Dazhaimen outlets have evening Chinese opera performances as a special feature. Highlights of the programs include the fascinating 100 face changes in 60 seconds of Sichuan Opera, famous Peking Opera arias, magic, acrobatics, martial arts and short cross talks, all performed by seasoned professionals from Dazhaimen's arts troupe.

Dazhaimen's décor makes it an ideal restaurant to have a traditional New Year's Eve dinner. Ever since the first Dazhaimen outlet was opened in 2000, the New Year's Eve dinner has been an opportunity for the company to rake in profits. Ma Xiaosi, President of Century Wishing F&B, which manages the six Dazhaimen outlets, said that revenues on the New Year's Eve in a Dazhaimen restaurant are at least twice that of a regular day. Although food is charged for at the same price, a larger flow of customers makes it a special day for profits.

Ma said special activities arranged for the Spring Festival period at Dazhaimen, from the lunar New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival that falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, include banquets with set menus, dumpling banquets on the fifth day of the first lunar month, lantern riddle quizzes and performances by auspicious dancers, including lion dances and dances devoted to the God of Prosperity.

Ma said he and the chain's chefs have put a lot of thought into naming dishes at the set menu banquets, which start from 2,008 yuan ($280) per table for eight to 10 people. Although these dishes come directly from the regular menus, they are given new auspicious titles on the set menus. For example, Peking roast duck is called "Lucky Duck" since the skin color of the duck is red, considered the most auspicious color in Chinese culture. The soup of three kinds of vegetable is named "Spring Back to Earth" due to the bright green color of leaves in it symbolizing life and vitality. Baked shrimps are renamed "Good Laugh" since in Cantonese the word for shrimp sounds like laughter.

Home, sweet home

According to the recently announced overhaul of China's national holiday system, the Spring Festival remains a three-day holiday, but it will now start a day earlier from the eve of the Spring Festival. This change has allowed white-collar workers in cities time to prepare their family banquet at home.

According to a report of Xinhua, the catering business for the New Year's Eve banquets shows signs of cooling off for the first time in Hangzhou, the coastal Zhejiang Province. By January 25, a total of 7,537 tables had been reserved, about 20 percent lower than the final reservation number for last year.

In southern city Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, smaller restaurants have decided to close on New Year's Eve rather than receiving any banquet reservations. The bosses of the restaurants said the rising cost of ingredients due to inflation has made inroads into the profitability of economic family banquets. To make things worse, China's new holiday system has listed New Year's Eve as a national holiday, which requires the payment of salary three times the norm, according to the Labor Law. This has further narrowed the profit margin of these banquets.

Under the new holiday arrangements, many restaurants in Taiyuan, capital city of Shanxi Province, have begun to promote family banquets at lunchtime so that people can have their biggest meal during the daytime and reserve the evening for their close family, waiting for the start of the new year while chatting around a table at home, as people have done for thousands of years.

The Beginning of the Spring The Chinese lunar New Year-known as the Spring Festival-is the biggest holiday in China, and many festivals are held according to the Chinese lunar calendar. The longest chronological record in history dates back to 2600 B.C. The Chinese lunar calendar is a yearly one, but the start of the lunar year is based on the cycles of the moon so that New Year's Day can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. New Year's Day in 2008 falls on February 7. Each lunar year is associated with one of the 12 zodiac animals, and 2008 is the year of the rat.