Chinese cuisine with Yichang flavor. October 19 witnessed the opening ceremony of the 28th China Chef's Day and the awarding ceremony of “China's Food Capital” in Yichang Theater, at which the city was awarded the sign of“Capital of Chinese cuisine”, and its two counties Zigui and Changyang were given the signs of “Town of Chinese Cuisine”. Present at the ceremony were Jiang Junxian, president of the China Cuisine Association, who delivered a speech,and Zhou Ji, member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Yichang Municipal Committee, who announced the opening.

　　It is reported that the theme of this year's China Chefs Day is “Promote Chinese Cuisine Culture, show the mien of Contemporary Chefs, advocate Green Healthy food & beverage and advance the Development of the Catering Industry”. The festival lasted for 3 days, and was celebrated by a series of activities, such as Yichang Delicacy Promotion Conference, the opening ceremony &“Capital of Chinese Cuisine” Awarding Ceremony, China’s Famous Chefs Conference, a food summit, a food design and innovation competition with Yichang as the theme culture, an “A Bite of Yichang”food tasting activity, the 2nd Induction Ceremony into the Chinese Culinary Hall of Fame for Masters, the China Golden Kitchen Awards Ceremony and the Medal-conferring Ceremony for the Registered Chinese Culinary Masters, the Three Gorges Food Expo, the 4th Chinese Chef's Professional Skills Competition, Yichang International Cuisine, and Xiajiang DelicacyInspection.

　　As the annual brand event of the catering industry in China,even in the world, the China Chef's Day is noted as the chef's “Olympic event”. Yichang actively seized the opportunity of this year's Chef's Day, adhered to the principle of promoting the development through festivals, attracted more than a thousand chefs from all over the world to exchange skills, and 835 catering companies and suppliers to make exchanges and seek cooperation, in order to promote the development of the city's service industry.

　　It is learned that the city government officially proposed in early 2016 to take three years to build Yichang into a food capital recognized by local people and yearned for by both domestic and foreign tourists, thus to push forward therapid development of the local catering industry. At present, there are over 17,000 registered enterprises in the city’s catering industry, and more than 40 hotels with more than three stars, including two five-star hotels, four four-star hotels and 30 three-star hotels, and 20 designated food and beverage outlets, 10 “golden plate” tourist restaurants and 5 “silver plate” tourist restaurants.

　　Also present at the opening ceremony were the heads of cooking and catering associations of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, the relevant departments of Yichang City and the heads of counties and cities, chefs from all over the country, representatives of catering suppliers and service providers.

　　Sun Xiaohua, director of the Innovation Promotion Bureau of Yichang FTZ, said: “the park, to be basically completed by 2025, will become abridge head for Yichang to be integrated into the ‘One Belt and One Road’ initiative, helping it develop intoresourcefull and for both trade and investment so as to achieve its high-quality development.”

　　The SEZ,through which the Euro-asian Continental Bridge Railway passes, is the first stop for China to enter Central Asia and it lies only 3 kilometers away from the Horgos Port of China. (Reporter: Lei Pengcheng)