Quanjude

Quanjude was founded in 1864, in the late Qing dynasty, when the Hebei merchant Yang Quanren took over a run-down shop near Qianmen and rebuilt it. From the start it staked its name on hung-oven roast duck, growing from a small storefront into China's most famous duck house.

For many visitors Quanjude is synonymous with Beijing roast duck itself — often the first dish through which they come to know the city. Over more than a century it has served heads of state and ordinary diners alike, anchoring a local saying that a trip to Beijing without roast duck is a trip half-missed.

Its signature is the gualu, or hung-oven, method: ducks hang in an open-mouthed oven over an open fruitwood fire of date and pear wood, turned by hand for even heat until the skin is crisp and deep amber. Carving is its own art — a single duck yields a hundred or more slices, eaten rolled in thin pancakes with scallion and sweet bean sauce.

Quanjude is among the first brands certified as a "China Time-Honored Brand," and its hung-oven roasting technique is inscribed as national intangible cultural heritage — still one of Beijing's foremost culinary calling cards.