Tang
Foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character tang (Chinese: 堂;
pinyin: táng; literally: "auditorium"), or tang zihao (simplified Chinese: 堂字号; traditional
Chinese: 堂字號; pinyin: táng zìhào; literally: "auditorium brand"), are similar to foodservice establishments with names ending with the Chinese character zhuang, but the business of
these second class foodservice establishments were generally evenly divided among onsite
banquet hosting and catering (at customers’ homes). Foodservice establishments of this class
would also have long term contracts with Beijing opera troupes to perform onsite, but they
did not have long term contracts with famous performers (such as national treasure class performers) to perform onsite on regular basis, however these topnotch performers would
still perform at foodservice establishments of this category occasionally. In terms of catering
at the customers’ sites, foodservice establishments of this category often only provided dishes strictly according to their menu, and would not provide any dishes that were not on the menu, because they were generally incapable of providing dishes outside their menu according to the specific occasion.
