Restaurant Offers Discounts to Customers With Published Academic Work

A Chinese grillroom, Liuyedao or Lancet, offers discounts to customers who have published articles in the world's leading academic journals.

Set up by a group of Chinese doctors who graduated from elite universities, the restaurant has received widespread attention for its unusual promotion strategy, reports Xinhua news agency.

Ever since the promotion started, there have been long queues to get a seat at the restaurant.

"More than 100 doctors visited our grillroom every noon and evening after the discount notice was issued in September," said manager Tong Baoding. "Doctors outside Beijing have even flown here to eat barbecue."

Tong has a notebook which he uses to record the details of academic papers his customers have published in. It now fills more than 65 pages.

Wang Jian, a surgeon based in eastern China's Jiangsu province, and his doctor friends masterminded the project. They are all medicine graduates from Tsinghua and Peking universities, China's top universities.

Opened in late April, Liuyedao has gained a reputation for healthy cooking. It has a policy of only serving food prepared on the day and of not reusing cooking oil. To many it seems more like a doctor's club than a restaurant.

"I opened the eatery to attract young doctors to have a chat and relax. I didn't expect that senior doctors also like it," Wang laughed.

In mid-October, William Summerskill, senior executive editor with the Lancet, attracted by its reputation, attended the restaurant with friends.

Wang admits that he also opened the restaurant to make extra money.

"Doctors usually have great working pressure but relatively low pay. I need extra money, so I can focus on my job as a doctor," he said.