Dining on a cloud during Chinese New Year
Huawei and Haidilao demonstrates the remote cloud system attended by people in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Singapore.
COVID-19 has led to the cancellation of many family reunions during Chinese New Year, but people have a new option — cloud reunions.
Huawei and Haidilao, a Chinese hotpot restaurant chain, kicked off the new service earlier this month, enabling people to gather online via cloud services and smart screens. It's available in 57 Haidilao restaurants in more than 40 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and locations in Thailand and Malaysia. The hotpot chain has more than 1,000 stores in China and abroad.
The combination of people refraining from returning to their hometowns for the holiday and limits on the number of people who can dine together in restaurants presents the perfect opportunity for cloud dining, Haidilao officials said.
The remote cloud dinner service, based on Huawei Cloud’s video conference service, can be accessed on smart screens as large as 86 inches with interactive features and high definition. Users can also access the service with their smartphones.
The annual cost of a cloud conference system is about 8,000 yuan (US$1,230), affordable for most chain restaurants.
In addition to the cloud system, Haidilao will beef up its delivery services during the holiday for people dining in their homes, a practice the government is encouraging during the pandemic.
