Rent hike may close popular restaurant_美文_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Rent hike may close popular restaurant

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A Guangzhou noodle restaurant that became an overnight sensation after it was featured in a blockbuster TV series is struggling with a huge rent increase and may have to close its doors next week.

Guangzhou residents are flocking to the 26-seat restaurant for a last bite of the traditional Guangdong-style noodles after news of the imminent closure went viral on the Internet.

Li Shilin, the 59-year-old owner, said he is still looking for a new location. It will take at least a month for the restaurant to reopen.

Officials in Guangzhou's Liwan district, where the restaurant is located, accompanied Li on Wednesday when he met his landlord to negotiate the rent. The two sides failed to reach an agreement.

The restaurant, which has been in business for eight years, was barely known by people outside the neighborhood until the May 15 episode of A Bite of China, a popular China Central Television series on traditional Chinese food.

After the TV show, the restaurant's business jumped 20 to 30 percent.

"I'm not sure whether the landlord's decision to double the rent is related to the boom in business," Li said. The restaurant's lease will run out on June 20, and the landlord asked for the new rent on May 20.

Li said that he initially rented the store for 4,500 yuan ($711) a month in 2004 and that the rent has increased 10 percent every year since then. The current rent is 9,860 yuan a month.