When Zhang Aihua, a Chinese government official running an industrial park in Jiangsu Province, held a lavish party for clients last week, he didn't expect quite so many guests to turn up — nor that they would be quite so angry.
The video below, first posted to Sina, shows around 1,000 gate crashers arriving and demanding to know why government money was being spent on the meal.
Zhang apparently begged for forgiveness — another image posted to the internet (included at the top of this post) shows Zhang on his knees, apologizing to the angry hoards through a megaphone.
According to
Zhang is reported to have spent 6,830 yuan ($1,105) for all of the tables at the banquet, and the Financial Times says that the meal came out at at 250 yuan ($40) a head.
While that figure may not sound too expensive to New Yorkers, outside of Beijing or Shanghai such a figure would seem absurd to many ordinary Chinese citizens. Unfortunately, it also comes during new President Xi Jinping's new austerity drive.
China.cn.org says that many lavish treats were served, including "high-end Chunghwa cigarettes, premium liquors produced by Jiangsu Yanghe Brewery, nearly extinctive Yangtze scabbard fish and Chinese globefish, which must be specially prepared because its organs have deadly toxins."