Cultural fusion continues as import beef demands rise

Western food and ingredients entered China around 100 years ago. After a century, Chinese cuisine has been revitalized with a more confident national culture. Cooking Western ingredients in the Chinese style has been all the rage, making use of more high-quality ingredients and inspiring the catering industry to develop more cuisines.

Sun Yongli, chairman of Beijing Hopewise, said China's import meat market has been booming in recent years. Meat enterprises have more choices in their selection. Irish beef and beef, for example, are two popular types of meat in today's China.

Irish beef is grass-fed and US beef is grain-fed. Both have their own fierce advocates. Irish grass-fed beef has less fat and is more natural, while US grain-fed beef has more fat and is thereby more tender.