CRI听力:High-end Restaurants "Reborn" in Frugality Campaign

Beijing Banquet is a high-end restaurant in the west of the capital.

The eatery inside a golden, five-stored mansion brands itself as the capital's first five-star restaurant.

Meals paid for with public money used to make up 90-percent of Beijing Banquet's revenues.

But now the number has dropped to zero since the central authorities rolled out several rules in December of 2012 aimed at curbing extravagant government spending.

Those rules ban government officials from holding banquets using public money, drinking during weekday lunches or having overly extravagant weddings for their children.

Back in January, one month after the launch of the frugality campaign, Beijing Banquet's revenues dropped over 50-percent.

The restaurant lost almost 3 million yuan in February.

The frugality campaign is part of the anti-corruption drive by China's new leadership, which took the office in March 2013.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had this to say at a disciplinary officials meeting at the beginning of 2013.

"The public only trusts a clear government and the public only gives their support to the kind of government that exerts its power properly. We should continue to build a disciplinary and prevention mechanism to curb corruption. Party members should keep in mind that no one can enjoy absolute power above the law. Anyone who exercises power should serve the people, be accountable for the people and consciously accept supervision of the people."

Since then, newly-exposed corruption cases and fresh anti-extravagance rules hit the headlines in Chinese media almost every two weeks.

Over 100-thousand Chinese officials have been punished for corruption during the first three quarters of 2013.

Several senior central government officials and provincial governors have been removed from their posts before being sent to prison.

The central authorities have also shown no lenience to minor corruption cases which are called "flies," with senior corrupt officials being called "tigers".

Apart from the anti-corruption moves, almost 5-thousand government officials have been punished for violating the anti-extravagance rules during the first 10 months of 2013.

Amid all this, many high-end restaurants, including Beijing Banquet, have had to redesign their menus to fill the void caused by the sudden drop in government-sponsored banquets.

Now, instead of being the almost exclusive domain of government officials, more and more average citizens are now able to enjoy a meal at places like Beijing Banquet.

"We came here to celebrate my daughter being offered a spot in her dream college."

"Most dishes are priced around 40 or 50 yuan - 200 tops. It is different now. This place used to charge over 1-thousand yuan for a single course."

Gao Bo, public governance researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the frugality campaign may do some real good for this country's economy in the long run.

"The frugality campaign, of course, gives the catering, entertainment and other service sectors a difficult time. But in the long run, the campaign will help effectively control the power of the government and tighten the supervision over government spending. It will no doubt have some positive impacts on the sustained development of the Chinese economy and society."

For CRI, I'm Su Yi.