The Local Touch: Henry Zhao, Director of Marketing, Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast

Robynne Tindall, Contributing Editor | Oct 29, 2014 6:00 pm | Add a comment | 1408 reads

Native Beijinger Henry Zhao is the marketing brains behind Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast. Over a meal of Shandong-style dishes in the hotel’s Chinese restaurant, Choy’s Seafood, he told us about his favorite local dishes and his take on Beijing’s hotel industry.

Tell us a little bit about your background.
I’ve been in hotels in Beijing since the beginning of my career. I worked my way up from the bottom: from bell boy, to front desk, to sales and beyond. This is pretty standard in the hotel industry, even for top-level executives, as it’s the only way you can really understand how the hotel works. All in all I’ve worked for eight different hotel brands over the years.

Do you think being a Beijinger means you bring anything special to the job?
Maybe not in the hotel industry as a whole, but it certainly does for marketing. Whenever you meet a Beijinger you’ll notice that we love to tell stories and this is a key part of successful marketing. It also makes us great sales people – we can tell you all about the background of any product.

What changes have you noticed in the hotel industry in Beijing over the years?
The main thing is increased competition. Nearly every major international chain, from business hotels to luxury brands, has representation in Beijing now. You have to work harder to identify your unique selling point.

Where are your favorite places to eat local Beijing food?
I actually have pretty simple tastes. I prefer to go for traditional street food dishes like chuan’r and baodu (boiled tripe). My favorite restaurant is called Juqi. It’s in southwest Beijing near Taoranting. They serve traditional Beijing dishes, but with creative, modern twists. For example, their fried rice is made to look like the coal bricks people used to use to heat their homes and is set on fire at the table. People are always so surprised when you take them there the first time!

Since this issue is all about pizza, what’s your favorite place for pizza?
I actually do like pizza a lot. We’re very close to Kro’s Nest on Xiaoyun Lu, so I go there quite often. We also do a great margherita pizza at our all-day dining restaurant Beijing Bistro.

“Cooking Brilliantly” brings together four award-winning chefs from around China for a five-day festival exploring the best that modern Chinese cuisine has to offer from October 27-31. The event ends with a seven-course gala dinner in the Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast’s Grand Ballroom on October 31.