XI JIA DE
During this pandemic, many good, social responsible enterprises has contributed their efforts to help, in all the ways. In particular, in my city, there is one chained catering enterprise in my city has captured my eyes. I have known their restaurant for a long time, yet this time, it really impressed me.
It is a chained dumpling brand and it owns almost 600 restaurants spread all over the country, and during this hard time, especially during the severe lockdown, they have offered the medical heroes and the volunteers free lunches. It was such a large quantity and they were just providing for the society, which has really impressed me.
I am a friend with the founder’s daughter, and when their headquarter has been built, they have invited us over. That was the first time I started to really know the founder, and the brand. In Chinese, the name of the brand has some special meaning. XI, the first character, means good fortune; JIA, means family, and DE, means good virtue. The founder, Mr. Gao, has put virtue before anything else, and starting from then, I realize that he knows that he was really doing something.
He then invited us to see their history. From 2002, they have been through all kinds of difficulties, yet they have stand well. Dumpling is a very traditional cuisine of China, which people will eat at special festivals. He thought he was not only operating restaurants, yet he is also preserving traditions, which should be cherished especially in modern days. Later he started a “dumpling museum”, which is not really a museum, but another little neat canteen. He has travelled all over the world and brought all kinds of dumplings from all corners of the world back and created that museum.
I was really astonished how he could operate his enterprise such well. When I ask him how he could do that, he told me that it was easy; he will only do one thing to the extreme best in his time.
J.Shen