Bao Family draws in many customers with authentic Chinese cuisine in France

Celine Chung's original goal in 2019 when she opened her first restaurant in Paris was to break the clichés surrounding Chinese cuisine and create a haven where she could authentically express her multicultural identity.

Born in France to Chinese parents, she co-founded a restaurant Petit Bao five years ago. The restaurant emphasizes on organic, high-end, locally sourced ingredients, with each menu item being crafted by hand daily.

Now she hopes to make Chinese bao as popular as the baguette in France.

Her restaurant specializes in bao, a type of steamed bun with various fillings, which customers can't seem to get enough of. Each day, more than 360 portions are prepared by hand using organic flour and meat sourced entirely from France.

"In the same way that there are Shaolin masters, there are also masters of the bao! It's really an exceptional skill that's very rare. Each dumpling has 18 folds. It is very complex to make. And it's hard to find in Paris. The great thing is that the stock is inside the bao, so you get a warm explosion of flavors and a mix of textures that's delicious," Chung said.

In her quest to find her true purpose, the 34-year-old quit her job as a consultant to train as a chef in Shanghai. It's there where she met her future partner Billy Pham, before embarking on the adventure of a lifetime together.

"I think cooking is a great and magical way of doing that. It has great power. With a plate, a dish, good service and a smile, you can make people happy. I find that really powerful," she said.

She was born straddling two cultures, growing up in Paris while developing a fondness for the traditional cuisine of her mother, who was born in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province.

"Many family moments are celebrated around the table. That's how I came to realize that the dining table holds an important place in our lives. It brings people together. There's a real sense of solidarity and community around the kitchen table. I think that's a key element of Chinese cuisine," she said.

This philosophy won over Parisians much to the surprise of her parents.

Petit Bao has hit the big time and is now part of the Bao Family, a group with 150 employees from over 25 nationalities.

In five years, Celine has opened four restaurants in Paris, all of which are hugely popular.

"The aubergines are my favorite dish on the menu. These little marvels. It's why we come here! The quality doesn't change, and that's very important for us. We always get the same thing," said a customer.

"I come every day. My workplace is just opposite, so it's like my canteen," said another customer.

Each restaurant provides an immersive experience, offering the feel of a popular Chinese canteen with decorations while mixing in Celine's love for Parisian design.

"When I was younger, I heard a lot of hurtful clichés about Chinese food. I really wanted to show a new side to Chinese cuisine, to show that it can be beautiful, taste good and be cool. I'm very happy and proud to be able to put Chinese cuisine in its rightful place," she said.

Mission accomplished for the Bao Family, which is set to expand even further with the opening of a new restaurant in Paris this summer and in the southern city of Marseille.

Bao Family draws in many customers with authentic Chinese cuisine in France

Bao Family draws in many customers with authentic Chinese cuisine in France

Centuries-old maps handed down to fishermen by their ancestors in Tanmen Township of China's southernmost Hainan Province provides compelling evidence to China's sovereignty over the South China Sea, according to a China Global Television Network (CGTN) documentary released on Friday.

Like many people in Tanmen, Lu Jiabing was born into a fishermen' family going back generations. What distinguishes Lu's family is a treasured family heirloom -- a booklet used to navigate the South China Sea which Tanmen residents call "Genglubu", meaning "Route Map."

Each family's Genglubu is different from another. Passed down through successive generations, the documents embody the Tanmen fishermen's adventurer spirits, and have become an important basis for China's territorial rights in the South China Sea. "I'm not sure when this Genglubu was written. Anyway, it's been passed down from generation to generation, and I'm the sixth in line to inherit it. We used it along with a compass at sea. The needle of the compass points toward south and north. 'Zi' refers to north and 'Wu' to south. There are 24 squares, each containing one character. One square represents 15 degrees, and there are 360 degrees in total," Lu told CGTN.

Out on the vast ocean, the compass and Genglubu have forged new routes at sea for the fishermen over the past centuries. One line of text on the map indicates a route From the Xisha Islands' Panshiyu in the central part of the sea to the Nansha Islands' Shuangzi in its south, covering some 280 nautical miles.

Among Tanmen's fishermen of centuries past, there were several hundred Genglubu in circulation, and the Lu family's manuscript is one of the most detailed. It records 135 routes -- 84 in the Nansha Islands and 38 in the Xisha Islands.

"One red circle represents a single sea route. Our ancestors' exploration covered the entire South China Sea. It has been passed down through generations. Whenever my grandfather headed out to sea, he would read Genglubu by the light of kerosene lamp the previous night. I'd climb on his back to look at it along with him. In the beginning, I would follow my father to work in the Nansha Islands. We would stay there for six months. We sailed all over the Nansha Islands," said Lu.

Long before satellite navigation or even accurate nautical charts came into being, Hainan fishermen used Genglubu and drove wooden sailboats to cultivate the sea. These documents have survived to witness the development the South China Sea islands by local people.

"This is the sea chart passed down in my family. The names marked on the entire nautical chart were all left by our ancestors. Meiji Island (Panganiban Reef) was called 'Shuangmen.' These are the sections that are connected. We call them 'Duanjie' as it's easier to remember. Its official name is Ren'ai Reef. These places are known as the 'ancestral waters.' These are the places our ancestors explored and developed. So, I feel proud of them," Lu said.

Centuries-old map shows how ancient Chinese fishermen navigated South China Sea