The catering industry in the first three quarters of this year in Guilin – the prefecture-level city in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region – generated revenue of 6.58 billion yuan ($907.19 million).

That was an increase of 14 percent year-on-year, officials announced during a news conference on Nov 13.

Currently, the city is home to a total of 35,000 food businesses – including 11,000 catering enterprises – and it boasts a wide range of eco-friendly ingredients, with thousands of ecologically edible materials available.

The Guilin cuisine represents a fusion of Cantonese, Sichuan, Hunan, Suzhou and ethnic minority cuisines – offering domestic and overseas visitors an unforgettable taste experience.

Of these, Guilin rice noodles – with a history of more than 2,000 years – has become a hot favorite with local folks, while the Yao ethnic oil tea tradition has been listed as an intangible cultural heritage item by UNESCO.

The Guilin osmanthus industry currently posts an annual output worth 3 billion yuan, making the city the largest distribution center for osmanthus products in China.

What's more, a recently approved plan on the construction and development of Guilin as a world-class tourism city was issued. It envisages that it will become one of the world's gourmet capitals.

That's by accelerating the development of its distinctive products, cultivating a raft of well-known Guilin catering brands and attracting leading domestic and foreign catering enterprises to settle there.