The Origin between Home Dinner and Money Exchange Shop
The restaurant is about 100 square meters and it is able to provide place for more than 100 people to enjoy their dinners at one time.
The company organized professional staff to investigate and find out about a hundred private dishes of tens of rich and powerful merchants’ families in order to bloom the historical shop Pingyao, which has thousands of years’ history. After that, we are honored to present ceremoniously dinners. Therefore, our restaurant is suitable for people of different criterion, quantity and flavor. I believe our hotel wins universal praise and you will find you have a worthy trip after you enjoy dinner in it.
Room No.1: Rishengchang
Rishengchang was the first money exchange shop in the history of China. It came into existence in 1823 Qing Dynasty with headquarter in south of West Street down the county of Pingyao and the first owner was Li Daquan.The first manager of Rishengchang was Lei Lvtai, a talented and skilled person in management. He was the most famous person at that time.The former of Rishengchang was Xiyucheng paint shop.In order to adapt the requirements of commerce and finance, Xiyucheng was also responsible for agiotage.
After Rishengchang was set up, it was specifically engaged in business of deposit, loan and remittance. The customers were mostly feudalistic bureaucrats, landholders and businessmen.With the development of business, Rishengchang set up 35 branches over all big and middle cities and places of business and strategic importance in China. It was especially famous for its worldwide business. Rishengchang had 102 years’ history. The establishment of Rishengchang was symbol of that new-typed finance of modern China came into existence in China.
Room No 2: Weishengchang
As a member of the five united “WEI” money exchange shops, Weishengchang was reorganized from a silk and ribbon shop.The first owner’s family name was HOU and he was from Jiexiu County. Mr. Wang and some other small shareholders also was owner of Weishengchang.The initial capital was 120,000 taels of silver, it increased to 160,000 taels of silver in midterm and achieved 240,000 taels of silver when going out of business.
The headquarter of Weishengchang was in the city of Pingyao and it set up branches one after another in Beijing, Tianjin, Zhangjiakou, Hekou, Xi’an, Sanyuan, Shanghai, Suzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Nanchang, Hankou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Kaifeng, Zhoukou, Daokou, Shashi and Changde.
Weishengchang went out of business in 1916 and it had 90 years’ history. The customers were mainly industrial and commercial shops. In addition, it also had business on official deposit. And the management mode was mainly of deposit, loan and remittance. Seldom did it issue bill.
Room No3: Weitaihou
Weitaihou is also a member of the five united “WEI” money exchange shops.Weitaihou was set up in 1826 in Qing Dynasty and the former was silk and ribbon shop owned by Mr. Hou from Jiexiu. The headquarter was in the west street down the city of Pingyao.The initial capital was 95,000 taels of silver and achieved 35,0000 later.
It had 33 branches in Taigu, Taiyuan, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenyang, Jinan, Yantai, Xi’an, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hankou, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Nanchang,Shantou, Guangzhou, Guilin, Fuzhou and Xiamen. Weishenbchang had integrated bylaw and specific regulations on the management of shareholders, manager, responsibilities of counterjumper, check-out, going home to visit families of counterjumper, account book and letters.
Room No 4: Weifenghou
Weifenghou was set up in 1826 in Qing Dynasty from a silk and ribbon shop.The original address of Weifenghou was in the west street of Pingyao City. The owner of Weifenghou then was Mr. Hou from Jiexiu and manager Yan Yong’an from Pingyao.There were 26 branches all over China.The initial capital was 170,000 taels of silver,
it increased to 200,000 taels of silver in midterm and achieved 283,000 taels of silver when going out of business.It was a member of the five united “WEI” money exchange shops too.The owner is named as Hou Yinchang. He had managed a shop in Pingyao.During the Gengzi Affair, Weifenghou was disastrous.Li Hongling, the manager of Beijing branch of Weifenghou, put the idea of reorganizing bank disastrous in 1908.The Weifenghou Commercial Bank was set up on May 4, 1916. The business scope included exchange and mortagage of fund, time bill, current deposit, discount of promissory note, exchange on gold and silver and so on.
Room No 5: Xintaihou
As another member of the five united “WEI” money exchange shops, Xintaihou was reorganized from a silk and ribbon shop in 1826 in Qing Dynasty.The owner were Mr.Hou from Jiexiu and Zhao Yidi from Pingyao.The initial capital was over 150,000 taels of silver and it expanded to 260,000 taels of silver later.
The key manager was Mr. Hou. It went out of business in 1921 after 95 years’ management. The headquarter was set up in Pingyao County and it had 26 branched all over China.In order to develop its business, Xintaihou participated in the competition and tried its utmost. But finally, it was substituted by new fashioned banking.As a exchange shop with longer history, Xintaihou went out of business in 1921.
Room No 6: Tianchengheng
Another member of the five united “WEI” money exchange shops, Tianchengheng was reorganized from a silk and ribbon shop in 1826 in Qing Dynasty.The initial capital was over 60,000 taels of silver and it expanded to 200,000 taels of silver when it closed shop in 1898.After 92 years, in 1918 it reorganized as exchange shop.
The owner gained about 7000,000 taels of silver.And it had 23 branches in Yuncheng, Beijing, Tianjin, Chahaer, Xi’an, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Hankou and so on.It did have splendid management achievement. However, with the existence of new-fashioned banking, it became no longer competitive, what’s more, the Xinhai revolutionary resulted in commercial chaos and capital curtailment, which accelerated the speed of its closure.
Room No 7: Xietongqing
The money exchange shop of Xietongqing was set up in 1856 and the headquarter was in Pingyao. So it belonged to Pingyao faction.The owner was Mr. Wang fromYuci and Mr. Mi from Village of Wangzhi in Pingyao.The initial capital was only 36,000 taels of silver, which was no more than ten percent of Rishengchang and about a half of Tianchengheng.
It had astonished other exchange shops for its rapid capital cycle time, large throughput and great profit.Li Hongling, a famous exchange shop merchant, put his idea as “With only ten thousand taels of silver of initial capital, Xietongqing grew up so rapidly in the years of Xianfeng. This was astonishing and unique.” The branches are all over 31 important towns and commercial cities and the number of counterjumpers is quite large.
Room No 8: Baichuantong
The money exchange shop of Baichuantong was established by Qu Yuanzhen, Qu Yuanluo and Qubenli from the county of Qixian in 1860. Its headquarter was set up in No 134 South Street down the county of Pingyao.
It had 59 years’ history and went out of business in 1918.The capital was 300,000 taels of silver.Wu Dade from Pingyao, Qu Chuanzhi from Qixian and Pang Ningshan from Pingyao all had served as the manager of Baichuantong.It had 22 branches separately in Taiyuan, Taigu, Qixian, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Wuchang, Hankou, Shashi, Changsha, Xiangtan, Changde, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guiyang, Kunming, Wuzhou, Guilin, Guangahou, Chaozhou, Shantou, Xi’an and Sanyuan.Baichuantong went bankrupt in 1918. And it was opened as “the private museum of shareholder of Shanxi Province”.

“Yun Jin Cheng Home Dinner” Cookbook 
People in rich and large families of Pingyao in Ming and Qing Dynasty were liquorish. Owing family cooks was symbol of their wealth and identity. The family cooks improved their cooking technology in order to cater to masters’ taste. And as time passes, they created their own special dish series.
No. 1 Cookbook of Family of Lei
Lei Lvtai from Pingyao was the initiator of Shanxi money exchange shop. Mr. Yu Qiuyu, a famous scholar in modern times, said Rishengchang founded by Lei was “countryside grandfather of China bank”.
Lei Lvtai had got great achievements and very high social status, at the same time, he was quite low-pitched.In his lifetime, he had been assisting three generations of owners of Rishengchang. In order to avoid suspicion of owners, Lei had been cautious all the tine.Lei had initiated the first money exchange shop of Rishengchang and founded it all over the country, and he also was loyal and devoted for he had not been away from it.Because of Lei’s splendor achievement, country gentlemen presented a golden plaque with “BA HU QI CUI” in it when he was seventy years old. The plaque is now preserved in the former residence of Lei.
Lei’s seventy-year-old birthday spectacle had been of great ostentation and extravagance. Relatives and friends of his presented plague and birthday noodle and Lei provided abundant birthday dinner for them.During the dinner, people cheered each other and blessings for Lei filled everywhere. People gave full praise and great interest for every dish provided and they had got them new names.And then, the dishes of “wing leading to all over the world”, “sinking fish and falling goose”, “treasures all over the hall”, “BaiLing devoted to luck”, “special crisp meat of Lei”, “flowers blowing for riches and honor”, “come back with fruitful results” and “three silklike soup for wealth” became patent of dish name in the family of Lei.The primary names were not remembered, however, these names are kept down to this day.
No. 2 Cookbook of Family of Li
The owner of Rishengchang was Li Daquan from Pingyao.Li invested 300,000 taels of silver for the first private bank in China and Lei lvtai was the planner and promoter. Rishengchang was especially famous for its worldwide business.The former of Rishengchang was Xiyucheng paint shop.In addition, Li established money exchange shops of “Qianjisheng” and “Rixinzhong”.
Li initiated the first money exchange shop in 1823 and it lasted till 1923.Families of Li established houses and purchased land centerd with Rishengchang and Qianjisheng, they also invested on other money exchange shops and lived prodigal and extravagant lives.
Villagers said their life based on families of Li.
There were many servants in Li family.People of Li lived a converse life.They slept in daytime and played Majiang and ate opium at night. Whenever they thought they wanted meal, the servants would provide plenty of food for them.Families of Li, Hou and Ji from Jiexiu were all great rich businessmen, and the marriage in the families looked rational.The daughter of Li were married to Ji’s son.According to the tradition of Pingyao, the following day after marriage is the day the bride should come back to her parents.Many relatives and friends congratulated on it.And Li provided them a great dinner.The folklore of China was quite cultured and it puts emphasis on good luck all the time.During the dinner, besides common dishes of “good fortune all over hall”, “melon and fruit all over the garden” and “three treasures of Li’s family”, “a perfect pair” was especially provided for the moral that business will get a higher development through the marriage.After twenty years, the son of the new family grew up and was married to the daughter from Hou. During the wedding ceremony, the dish of “a perfect pair” was again especially provided.Therefore, the dish became patent of Li’s wedding ceremony.Another festive dish of Li was named as “continuous three generations of No. 1 scholar”.
Li Zhenshi, the son of Daquan, had been fond of reading and was taciturn.He had been dreaming of official career.The income from management of Li was divided into two parts apart from daily expenditure, one was to enlarge the commercial investment and the other for tufthunting.He presented official titles not only for himself, but his dead father, grandfather and great grandfather. These nominal office satisfied the wishes of being officials in some degree.In order to memorialize and congratulate on this, Li Zhenshi changed name of a private dish into “continuous three generations of No. 1 scholar” in a home dinner.
No. 3 Cookbook of Family of Hou
Hou Wangbin was a old and well-known money exchange shop in Pingyao. He was once the general manager of Tianchengheng. His son was also once shopkeeper of Rishengchang. He was so cautious that he always inspected everything.During the thirty years he served as the manager of Tinchengheng, he created profit over 10 times than that of common money exchange shops. He named a dish he liked most as “ten thousand of gold” in order to keep the achievement.
Hou Wangbin once felt exhausted and his eyesight was bad because he put all his energy in business.His families was quite worried about it and looked for the secret recipt for health care.The cook carefully selected fresh sleeve-fish and shrimp pip from deep sea, some fresh bamboo shoot and celery as raw materials and fried them with some dry fruit. After Hou Wangbin took the dish for some time, he was energetic and had a high color. So he praised the cook for that and gave him some money for encouragement. After that, the dish was named as “most famous fry emperor of Hou”.After some time, the cook created a new sick soup from mushroom and other three materials which was suitable for all the families. The new soup was effective in several aspects and named as “sick soup from four treasures in Hou”.In Ming and Qing Dynasty, only a small percentage of people could live over seventy. Hou Wangbin died at the age of seventy-six. It was related to health care.
No.4 Cookbook of Family of Ji
As a member of the four rich and large families, Ji was the first family that managed the cloth shop of Qianshengheng. But the family had no many members and Ji Guoding was the only son of this family in his generation.Ji Guoding had no son until he was over forty so he had the idea of marrying the fourth wife.He fell in love with a girl with family name of Ma and sent some persons for proposal.
The presents included some necessary dishes and some special ones. One dish was especially introduced because it had taken crab meat and abalone as material and had some special functions such as clearing heat and lightening exhaust. The dish was named “meet between dragon and emperor”, hinting the marriage would break through in two aspects if succeeded.The girl had given birth to five sons after marriage. After death of Ji Guoding, she managed the internal and external affairs for “the sons were not grow-ups”.
The wife was so talented that she managed everything in perfect order although she stayed in house every day.It was said that the ceremony of public bidding didn’t open until Ma arrived.Thus she was talented in management.Families of Li and Ji were all great rich businessmen, and the marriage between the families looked rational.Ji Yihe, the youngest son of Ma, was the most talented and efficient and he married girl from family of Li.The couple was, in modern words, quite romantic.For example, they named dish from ice, coconut milk and swallow as “voice from nightingale and swallow”. The name came from not only the functions of taking good care of health but their deep love.One day, they brought out the dish name which were understood only by the couple because of carelessness. It aroused the dissatisfaction and jealousness of the family.Yi Zheng was a skillful writer. It was said that for convenience of examination then, the cloth shop was reorganized as a money exchange shop. The commercial capital developed to its height of power and splendor in Qianlong Years. T he business of Qianshengheng became the well known magnate in China.However, people from his family didn’t put their wealth up. And a dish named “hide beauty in a golden house“ which was made by golden melon and rice of eight treasures, embodied the characteristics of Ji.
No. 5 Cookbook of Family of Qu
Family of Qu is one famous rich and powerful businessman in Jinzhong.Family of Qu owned tens of large courtyards with thousand of houses in the city of Qixian and people called it “half city of Qu”. The ancestor was a peddlery. As time passed by, he had some savings. Afterwards, he managed garden, oil and commissariat and also tea. At the same time, he managed a old-style Chinese private bank. Yuanzhen, the seventeenth generation of Qu, became one of the top eight rich families in Jinzhong. Nickname of Qu Yuanzhen was “Wang’er” which was called prosperous rich man.
He not only was the owner of Sanjinyuan, but organized Baichuantong and invested Cunyigong. And the branches reached over ten. At the same time, he established some branches of tea and salt shops, money shops, pawn shops, silk shops and medicinal materials shops. For the expanding more flexible business, Qu developed his business rapidly. However, families of Qu were quite cautious and cared about good luck all the time. Even they named dishes according to good luck. Routine dishes in Qu were summed up as the following poem: “a good beginning from ice in spring, a great treasure from abundant foodstuff, a delicious dish from soy sauce and mullet egg, a great spring from the beautiful scenery”.
The origin of “vegetable all over the sky” was interesting.
Qu Family attached great importance to education of the children and famous teachers were invited to be their teachers. Parents hoped the children would reach their career better. Qu Benqiao was the most outstanding one in Qu Family. Benqiao was knowledgeable and he always understood external culture rapidly. One day, he saw a cook in a shop cooking in a smart and elegant way. He thought that watching cook cooking was of great joy. When he came back home, he ordered home cook to provide this dish for him and named it “vegetable all over the sky”. Therefore, the dish became a preserved one in Qu Family.
No.6 Cookbook of Family of Mao
The former of Yunjincheng was a restaurant, whose owner’s family name was Mao.Mao Jimei, the ancestor, was once a hired counterjumper. He was involved in commerce step by step and became the second richest in Pingyao.It was only tens of years from its silver age to downfall.Mao Hongsui, the son of Mao Jimei, was an outstanding and talented person. He was very famous for he managed Rishengchang as the second. Later, for the contest of influence, he left there and set up the second money exchange shop named “Weitaihou”, and afterwards, “Weishengchang”, “Weifenghou”, “Xintaihou” and “Tianchengheng” which combined as the five united “WEI” money exchange shops.
Period of Mao Lvtai, Mao Hongsui’s grandson, was the most prosperous and wealthy one. Apart from Yunjincheng restaurant in Pingyao, he owned Yongtaizhuang money shop, Jintaichang cloth shop and Risheng tobacconist. He also set up money exchange shops of Yongtaiqing and Yongtaiyu.
People in Mao Family were advocators of being fat. They thought being fat was the symbol of wealth. Therefore, meat appeared and a special dish called “wealthy family and harmonious house” was especially served every meal. It was really reasonable for pork could nourish body. And women from Mao Family were all plump.
Mentioning wealth, people from Pingyao then always took Mao Family as example. They said “to be rich, just marry a fat girl.”However, they forgot Mao married the fat girl after being rich.A soup in menu of Mao Family was named as “pearl, emerald and white jade soup” made of sago, spinach and Chinese watermelon. It was quite healthy and good for weight reduction. Therefore, women of Mao Family did like slim stature, which happened to have the same view with modern females.