AROUND CHINA

Tastes of Guangxi

When Chen Xiaoqing directed A Bite of China, filming the best offerings of the country's food, he skipped the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, because there was too much to choose from. A team with Chinese National Geography, one of China's top travel and geography publication groups, has since spent a year in field to search for traditional produce and authentic crafts in Guangxi and Sichuan, Hunan and Guizhou provinces. It has made the first in a series of documentary episodes, The Unexplored Guangxi. The film vividly presents the geography, natural produce and craft foods in Guangxi, such as its signature fish sauce, black rice and cane sugar. A book titled Didao Fengwu: Guangxi, highlighting traditional crafts and produce, has also been published by China CITIC Press this summer.

Curbing food rumors

As social media has become an indispensable part of people's daily lives, rumors also swamp the online world to dispense dubious knowledge and information on food safety. Last week, together with dozens of news outlets, food industry associations and research institutes, the food channel of Xinhua.net initiated the China Food Rumor-Refuting Alliance. Alliance members will work together to spread accurate information and refute rumors, plus hold educational events in residential communities and colleges to teach the public about food safety.

Catering rise

The past seven months have seen an increase of 11.6 percent in the overall revenue of China's catering industry, which totaled 1,759.7 billion yuan, according to statistics released by the World Association of Chinese Cuisine at a convention in Beijing last week. Hundreds of government officials, industry-association representatives and executives of catering companies gathered to discuss the Internet's influence on the catering industry and how to make the most out of the online-offline business model.