Residents in Beijing and Tianjin can now order delicacies served by the Beijing's hotel for heads of state online, the latest service that ordinary people can receive from the prestigious hotel.
Two different set meals priced at 3,980 yuan ($614) and 3,480 yuan, respectively, were listed for sale at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse's shop on the online business-to-consumer retail platform tmall.com on Tuesday.
The hotel is attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).
Sales of the two packages hit 44 as of press time, and one anonymous client ordered 10 meals at once.
Each meal package includes four dishes and a soup for four people, featuring ingredients such as cuttlefish roe, beef, white jelly mushrooms, matsutake, abalone and prawns.
The frozen food will be delivered from January 20 to February 20, 2016, including Spring Festival Eve on February 7, when Chinese families usually dine together to ring in the traditional new year.
Built in 1959, the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse is an important venue at which Chinese leaders conduct State and diplomatic activities. It has hosted 1,287 foreign heads of state and government, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II.
The hotel has lowered the threshold and opened to ordinary customers in recent years.
A waitress at the hotel's reservation center told the Global Times that the hotel's dining and accommodation services are open to public, except for when the guesthouse is receiving government delegates or significant guests.
A visit to the hotel and a meal at its restaurant are included in some travel agencies' travel packages, though travelers' personal information must be reviewed by the hotel in advance, a tour guide was quoted as saying by the Guangzhou Daily in September.
A total of 74 clients have shared reviews of their stays at the hotel on Ctrip, a leading online travel agency, and the price of rooms listed ranges from 2,680 yuan to 39,800 yuan.
The hotel was not financed by the government and has gradually begun to receive ordinary people as guests, increasing revenues, Sun Danxiang, a hotel manager, said in an online interview with the MFA previously.
