The celebrated Peking roast duck chain, Quanjude (Group) Co, is set to open its first Taiwan restaurant in the island's southern city of Kaohsiung, but the ducks served will all be from Beijing as the island ducks aren't fat enough.

Jiang Junxian, the group's chairman, said the Taiwan branch would have to source specially-fed ducks from the mainland to keep the dish's original flavor. Cao, the group's market development manager, said the restaurant would open in the Former Banana Warehouse, a famous local historic building.

Quanjude has been serving its speciality Peking roast ducks since 1864, in the Qing Dynasty. It now has more than 80 franchised restaurants on the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and other countries including Japan, Australia and Myanmar.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2008)