Ravintola Pekingissä

Zhang Jiangtao and his wife Xiao Jing have left their eight-year-old daughter with their parents to open a diner in Beijing and earn the money that is too hard to come by in the countryside. It is a simple restaurant with a few tables and chairs, opening onto the street of a lower-class district. Discretion is required as they have neither the permit authorising them to live outside their own region, nor a license for opening a restaurant. The empty hours go by a little dozily, as they wait for their odd customer. One of the regulars, a voluble taxi-driver, needs no help to liven things up. He flirts harmlessly with the young woman, while her husband watches on halfamused, half-irritated. A moment of respite when they forget their fear of the police, the sadness of the separation with their daughter and their difficulty in reaching the goal they have set for themselves.