I am so excited with my recent discovery of 团购 (“tuangou”), which means “group buying.” It’s a Chinese version of Groupon, available in all of China’s big cities, plus some other popular vacation destinations in Asia. It works the same way as Groupon: you prepay at discounted prices for meals, personal care services, hotels, vacation packages, household goods, you name it! Once it’s paid for, you can make reservations directly with the merchant and enjoy. If you buy products, they’ll be delivered right to your door. The difference is that Groupon offers the deals from different merchants, but in China, a lot of e-commerce sites offer their own 团购, which gives you a lot more options.
I’ve tried a couple of Groupon deals in the past and haven’t really had a good experience. It felt like I was getting secondary treatment having not paid full price, when the purpose of Groupon is really to draw more customers to your business in the hope that they’ll keep coming back. In China, though, I’ve gotten pretty lucky with it.
Here’s an example of a prix fixe meal I bought for about US$33, regularly priced at US$60. It’s one of my favorite Cantonese restaurants in Beijing, called and 粤北小城 and located on the top floor of a shopping mall near Sanlitun Village. When Sarah was working in Beijing, we’d meet up there for lunch on the weekdays. Here’s what you get for 30 bucks (photos from the restaurant, as shown on dianping.com):
Are you as overwhelmed with this deal as I was? Another reason that I like this whole system is that I don’t have to spend the normal fifteen to twenty minutes thinking about what to order. The food just appears. Like magic! It’s great! Headed to China any time soon? Let us know in the comments, and we’ll help you score some good dinner deals.
Judy Leung is the matriarch of The Woks of Life family, working on the blog alongside husband Bill and daughters Sarah and Kaitlin. Born in Shanghai, China, she immigrated to the United States at sixteen. Fluent in both English and three Chinese dialects, she also plays the important role of researcher and menu translator! Drawing from over four decades of cooking experience and travel, Judy aims to bring Chinese culinary traditions to readers and preserve recipes that might otherwise be lost to time. Her expertise spans from Shanghainese cooking and everyday homestyle dishes to a variety of regional foodways, showcasing the depth and breadth of Chinese cuisine for a global audience. Over the last decade, she’s helped transform The Woks of Life into what Saveur Magazine has deemed “the internet’s most popular Chinese cooking blog,” co-written a New York Times bestselling cookbook, and become convinced that we will never run out of recipes to share!
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Welcome!
We’re Sarah, Kaitlin, Judy, and Bill– a family of four cooks sharing our home-cooked and restaurant-style recipes.
“I am proud to say that your genealogy has been the sole tutorial for my Asian-inspired culinary adventures for years; probably since you began. Time and again, my worldwide web pursuits for solid recipes that I know my family will eat has landed me back here.”