What the Duck: Quanjude Opens China's First Roast Duck Museum

Beijing has a brand new museum to add to its wacky, and oddly specific, collection (see also: the Watermelon Museum or the China Honey Bee Museum): a roast duck museum.

The museum celebrates the 150th anniversary of Quanjude, Beijing’s most famous roast duck brand (although in my opinion, not its best). Located at the brand’s Hepingmen branch, the 1,000 square meter location touts over 500 duck-related exhibits, including a coupon for duck dating back to the Qing Dynasty, adverts from the Republican era and endless photos of various celebrities enjoying their kao ya.

Along with the museum, Quanjude also celebrated the sale of its 196 millionth duck. As the WSJ comments, this being China and all, the details of how they came up with this figure are characteristically fuzzy.

As of last week, each duck sold at Quanjude is accompanied by a souvenir “ID card” so if you are that way inclined you can boast you were the one who ate the 196,001,623rd bird.

Genuine cultural significance or shameless marketing ploy? We'll let you be the judge.

The museum is open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-6pm, free entry.

Photo: Derrick S. (Flickr)