With comparatively fewer western-style restaurants than other Chinese metropolises like Shanghai and Guangzhou, China's capital city is planning to establish a center to train western-style food chefs as well as managerial and service staff from across the country, the Beijing Daily reported Monday.

"The development of western food restaurants in Beijing lags behind some major cities in China," Chen Liqun, president of the Beijing Western-Style Food Association, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Figures show that there are 3,600 western-style food restaurants in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, and more than 1,600 in Shanghai. But Beijing has only 600.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics will set new demand for western food services, so it is necessary to set up such training base to solve the staff shortage problem, according to the report.

Sometimes a Beijing-based restaurant cannot find a satisfactory head chef even with an annual salary offer of 500,000 yuan (US$62,000), Chen said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2004)