In 1959, the ceiling of the Great Hall of the People hid 50 people"State Banquet Manager"Nervousness and cold sweat.
On the evening of September 30, 1959, China was about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the leaders hoped to invite distinguished guests from all over the world to a state banquet in the Great Hall of the People.
When night fell, the leaders of our country and VIPs from various countries walked into the venue one after another, and the atmosphere was peaceful. However, in the southeast corner of the Great Hall of the People, there is a middle-aged man in a white shirt who looks a little different.
His smile was strained, and the back of his shirt was soaked with sweat. From time to time, he looked at the ceiling, as there were 50 men in black hiding ......The man standing in the southeast corner of the state banquet hall was named Zheng Lianfu, who was born in 1918 in a poor family in Sanyizhuang, Tianjin.
In addition to him, there are several brothers and sisters in the family, and life is extremely difficult. In order to make ends meet, 7-year-old Zheng Lianfu went out to do small jobs, and like many poor children, he picked up ashes to keep warm, and spent one cold winter after another.
When Zheng Lianfu was 13 years old, he got a recommendation from his father and came to Beijing to work alone in the "ball room". The so-called "Beijing Ball Room" is now the Taijichang International Club.
Despite his young age, he was diligent and hardworking, and the steward in the "ball room" put him in charge of some menial tasks, such as cleaning, making a stove, and picking up balls for people.
In addition, at that time, the "ball room" mainly accepted foreigners, so there were many rules. Zheng Lianfu also needed to assist in hosting foreigners when there was a shortage of manpower. Due to the complexity of the work, he has been criticized no less.
At that time, as soon as foreigners entered the house, Zheng Lianfu and other waiters needed to take their coats, hats, gloves, scarves and other items and place them in order. When the foreigners are ready to leave, Zheng Lianfu also needs to hand the items back to them in reverse order.
Zheng Lianfu always couldn't figure out the order of these items at the beginning, so he was often stared at and scolded by foreigners. However, Zheng Lianfu is a person who is not afraid of difficulties, and the more he is looked down upon by others, the more he wants to prove himself.
Therefore, he worked in the "ball room" for three whole years. In these three years of work experience, he has become more mature and steady, and he also knows how to observe words and feelings, and is more careful in doing things.
With this experience, he was introduced to work at the Beijing Hotel at the age of 17. The Beijing Hotel is ideally located on Chang'an Avenue. In 1907, the Sino-French Industrial Bank bought it from two Frenchmen and transformed it from a bistro into a high-end hotel.
The hotel often receives foreign guests, so Zheng Lianfu, who has three years of work experience, is very handy to work here.
Zheng Lianfu experienced poverty in his early years, so he worked very hard in a Beijing hotel. His efforts were appreciated by the Chinese manager, and he was promoted to the position of hotel manager.
Despite wearing a purple shoulder, he kept a low profile, did not smoke or drink, and even refused the invitation of a dancer. In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the Beijing Hotel became the most exclusive hotel in the capital, receiving many foreigners.
As a result, the leaders decided to hold the National Day banquet after the founding ceremony here, and Zheng Lianfu was elected as the main person in charge. After receiving the task, he was very nervous, but he still went all out to contact the relevant person in charge of the state banquet and learned in detail about the number of people at the banquet, the seating requirements of the guests and leaders.
After careful planning, he personally led the waiters to set up the banquet hall, and after a few days of preparation, the state banquet began. Zheng Lianfu and the waiters of the Beijing Hotel stood up straight to greet everyone.
The first to step into the banquet hall was ***, followed by *** and other national leaders. When the leaders walked in front of Zheng Lianfu, he was very excited, although he was smiling, his eyes were already full of tears.
This is also the first time he has had the privilege of having close contact with national leaders such as ***. After the state banquet, Zheng Lianfu was so excited that he couldn't sleep for several days, and he was extremely proud to be a part of this historic moment.
Zheng Lianfu successfully held a banquet in Beijing, which was appreciated by the senior management of the Beijing Hotel, and since then he has become the helmsman of various high-end banquets. During his lifetime, he planned and arranged thousands of banquets and received heads of state and heads of state of dozens of countries.
This banquet expert, who has seen the big world, is more calm when dealing with banquet affairs. He is known as the "chief state banquet leader" of the Beijing Hotel, and he is in the limelight. However, on the eve of the state banquet in 1959, he received an urgent task: the state leaders would hold a state banquet in the newly built Great Hall of the People, and Zheng Lianfu had just over a day to prepare.
It turned out that in order to show the development achievements of China's ten years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Communist Party of China, the people and the People's Republic of China decided to build ten major buildings, and the Great Hall of the People is one of them.
From design to delivery, it took only 10 months. The banquet hall of the Great Hall of the People covers an area of more than 7,000 square meters and can accommodate up to 10,000 people. In order to celebrate the inauguration of the Great Hall of the People, the leaders decided to hold a state banquet here, and the banquet was still in charge of Zheng Lianfu.
However, he had to arrange seats for more than 5,000 people from more than 80 countries and regions in a short period of time. For Zheng Lianfu, who has never handled such a large-scale banquet, this is undoubtedly a huge challenge.
He immediately went to the banquet hall of the Great Hall of the People and began to arrange the seats.
If you follow the traditional way of sitting 10 people at a table, then a banquet of more than 5,000 people will need 500 tables. However, the layout of the banquet hall includes not only the tables, but also factors such as the guest of honor, the band's footprint, serving aisles, fixed counters, and safe corridors.
Although he already knew the length and width of the banquet hall, he could not calculate whether he could put all the arrangements in place due to his low level of education. In order to confirm whether the banquet hall could accommodate all the set-ups, he decided to go to the banquet hall himself to take measurements.
He took off his shoes and measured with his feet and ruler on the ground that had just been decorated, calculating over and over again. After taking measurements, he knew the size of the ballroom, but was still unsure if it could accommodate all the setups.
He was distressed, and sat in the empty hall, his brow furrowed, his eyes red. Late at night, he suddenly had an idea. He patted his head and muttered, "This is sure to work!."
He decided to remove 30 of the original 500 tables, leaving only 470 tables, and the seat of the guest of honor could not be moved, so he added one seat to each of the remaining 300 tables.
That's just enough to sit everyone. Zheng Lianfu breathed a sigh of relief, but the design of the banquet was far from over. He immediately put the idea on a drawing and began to design the rest of the banquet, including the overall layout beyond the guest seats, as well as the dishes, chopsticks, tablecloths, and decorations used at the banquet.
He also considered details such as the dishes at the banquet and the interval between the dishes. Zheng Lianfu drew on the previous experience of holding a state banquet at the Beijing Hotel, and combined with the actual area of the banquet hall of the Great Hall of the People, and implemented all the designs on the drawings one by one.
In the morning, he hurriedly handed over his design to his superiors, and finally passed the approval of his superiors. Next, he began to arrange for the purchase of items needed for the banquet and checked them over and over again for damage.
He also took the waiters through the route of Xi serving over and over again to make sure that nothing could be wrong with so many tables of guests.
He asked the waiters to memorize the table they were responsible for and mark the small slips of paper when serving the dishes until all the dishes were served. During the meal, if guests need to add wine or handle spilled food, the waiters need to be flexible.
On the morning of September 30, 1959, Zheng Lianfu was still preparing for a state banquet, and foreign guests arrived in Beijing one after another. Suddenly, he received an order to go to the Public Security Bureau.
As soon as he arrived at the Public Security Bureau, the police asked him: "Comrade, can the state banquet be held in a different place?"Zheng Lianfu was stunned, and the police explained that the Great Hall of the People had not yet undergone a safety assessment, and if the line ** was used, it could cause the wood to be ignited.
Therefore, the Public Security Bureau suggested a different place. After hearing this, Zheng Lianfu said that it was difficult to find a banquet hall that could accommodate so many people for a while, but he would be mentally prepared.
Liu Ren immediately contacted Shen Bo, the president of the Beijing Architectural Design Institute, who was in charge of designing the Great Hall. Shen Bo explained that although the ceiling is made of wood, the wires are wrapped in iron pipes, and there are fire protection measures in the banquet hall.
Despite this, Liu Ren was still worried about the wire** and hurt the guests. To ensure safety, he suggested that the venue be arranged separately. Shen Bo immediately promised that if there was a problem with the line at the venue, he would be responsible alone.
Subsequently, Shen Bo found Zhang Hongshun, deputy director of the Construction Engineering Bureau, and told him that the banquet was still held in the Great Hall, but experienced electricians would be arranged at each wire joint, and once the fire was found, it would be extinguished immediately, and the comrades below would be notified to pull the brake and cut off the power.
The electricians uniformly wore black clothes to ensure that the guests were not disturbed. Zhang Hongshun agreed to the plan and told Zheng Lianfu about it. Zheng Lianfu nodded after hearing this, he could finally arrange the venue with peace of mind.
At 7 p.m. on September 30, state leaders and guests from all over the world entered the banquet hall one after another. Although more than 5,000 people entered one after another, Zheng Lianfu was still a little nervous.
From time to time, he looked up at the ceiling, worried that something would go wrong up there. At the same time, he is responsible for taking care of each guest. For the next three hours, Zheng Lianfu could not hide his nervousness, although he was smiling.
His white shirt was soaked with sweat, and his head was covered with sweat, but he didn't dare to let up in the slightest. He stood in the southeast corner of the lobby, quietly observing everything at the table.
When a guest wants to refill a drink and the waiter doesn't notice, he immediately radios the waiter. In this way, he spent the night in high tension.
The first state banquet in the Great Hall of the People was held smoothly, and the guests were very satisfied with the food and service on site, and they all praised the clever design of the banquet and the superb ability of the organizers.
Zheng Lianfu successfully completed this task. But he didn't have time to hear those assessments. After 40 hours of continuous work, Zheng Lianfu fell asleep in bed.
This tense but successful state banquet also became Zheng Lianfu's most memorable banquet. **After the hand-picked banquet designer, the leaders of the country have seen Zheng Lianfu's excellent banquet management ability, in addition to holding a state banquet in the Great Hall, he will be in charge, and the leaders of our country will also bring him when entertaining foreign guests in various places.
Because Zheng Lianfu has been in and out of Zhongnanhai and the homes of many leaders for a long time, he does not need to apply for a permit between the Nanhai districts.
Once, Zheng Lianfu accompanied *** to meet Swedish foreign guests at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. When entering the room, he volunteered to stay in front of the door and whispered in English to remind the foreign guests to pay attention to the threshold.
The foreign guests expressed their gratitude to Zheng Lianfu for his carefulness and thoughtfulness, and also praised the high quality of China's service personnel. The incident was reported by a Beijing newspaper praising Zheng Lianfu's proficiency in the five Chinese languages and his ability to communicate with guests at any time.
Although Zheng Lianfu has not read, he is very serious about learning Xi language, and he said that he cannot disgrace the leader of our country.
In the interaction with ***, Zheng Lianfu stood in the back row. After that, Zheng Lianfu was no longer in charge of banquets, but he still stuck to the gate of the new building on the east side of the Beijing Hotel and became a goalkeeper.
The country has not forgotten him, and in 1988, Zheng Lianfu was awarded the title of "Special First Class Banquet Designer". After retiring, Zheng Lianfu was not idle, in addition to helping his wife with housework at home, he was often invited to teach all over the country.
He also hopes to share his experience in banquet design with more people engaged in banquet design. During his lifetime, Zheng Lianfu continued to shine in the banquet design career.