It is 2am and a Chinese New Year jingle is blaring from the speakers at the Jindingxuan restaurant in Beijing. In the kitchen, cooks are hard at work preparing baskets of steaming dimsum.
Most restaurants in the Chinese capital have long shut for the night but at this five-storey dimsum joint in the east of the city, customers are streaming in.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month
No contract
ST app access on 1 mobile device
All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com
Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device
E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on February 03, 2019, with the headline Bid to spice up Beijing and boost city's night-time economy. Subscribe