The restaurant we had lunch is a kitschy historic delight. Photo: CRI

Chinese people like to say that Chinese people like food. After today's feasts, I can only agree.

This morning began with a press conference which was livelier than most - the moment I saw the investment advertising pamphlet that the senior delegates were reading I wanted one. I wasn't disappointed, it was a journalist's delight - there was information on investment projects ranging from theme parks to shale oil projects and biofuels. Enough fodder for more than a few stories.

I elbowed my way toward the Kenyan delegate who had just signed an agreement to purchase the rights to use Chinese 3D animation technology, having already joined the press scrum interviewing the Vice Director of the Jilin Publicity Department. All in all, it was a pretty successful morning.

Then came the lunch.

This was no mere 'lunch'. This was a banquet. This was a revolving glass table of meaty joy. Deep fried pork sat next to fish, which sat next to more pork, which sat next to beef, which was next to more pork. The restaurant itself was a kitschy historic delight. One moment you were suitably solemn as you read the names of Chinese Generals on the walls.

The next, you were laughing at the blue and yellow parrot sitting in the lobby.

I couldn't help but imagine that he was happy to be sitting on his perch, rather than with the fish swimming in the nearby tanks, awaiting hungry customers.

The murals of exuberant revolutionary masses provided the icing on the cake. Not that there was cake mind you. We were too stuffed with pork.

We had about three and a half hours on a bus to digest that meal-marathon, before we arrived at the Jiangyuan County of Baishan city. Once we arrived at our hotel we were treated to dinner.

I'm still recovering from that effort.