Haidilao International Holding Ltd., operating as Haidilao (), is a chain of hot pot restaurants founded in Jianyang, Sichuan, China in 1994. Its restaurants typically operate under the name Haidilao Hot Pot. It is the largest hotpot chain in China and has expanded overseas. As of 2022, Haidilao had around 1,300 restaurants in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, with its overseas unit, Super Hi International, running 97 outlets around the world, including in Singapore, the UK, and the United States. Their annual revenue is estimated to be more than CN¥10 billion. Etymology In Mandarin, haidilao can be translated as deep-sea fishing, or literally "scooping the bottom of the ocean." The origin of this term comes from a Chinese idiom, hǎidǐlāoyuè (海底捞月, lit. "fishing for the moon"), a metaphor for a hopeless endeavor. This idiom was originally derived from the Chinese Taoist poem Song of Enlightenment (永嘉证道歌). The term haidilao is also used by mahjong players to refer to a rare and lucky situation when a player wins with the last tile. History In March 1994, Zhang Long opened the first Haidilao hot pot restaurant along with three other founders with 8,000 Yuan in Jianyang, Sichuan Province. Haidilao grew competitively with an emphasis on customer service. After five years, Haidilao started to expand beyond Sichuan to other provinces like Xi'an, Shanxi province, and other parts of the world. In 2018, Haidilao Hot Pot served more than 160 million customers, with an average daily table turnover rate (i.e. the number of parties hosted per table per day) of 5.0. Haidilao Hot Pot has more than 36 million VIP members and 60,000+ staff. Haidilao and Panasonic jointly launched a "smart" restaurant in 2018. This smart restaurant relies on Panasonic's robotics and image recognition technology to achieve full automation of the kitchen. After the customer orders the food with tablet computer (iPad), the system in the kitchen can automatically recognize the dishes and puts them into the tray. In 2019, Haidilao opened the first robot-aided hotpot restaurant in Beijing. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Haidilao closed all stores in mainland China on January 26, 2020, to decrease the spread of the virus. On March 12, 2020, with cases decreasing in China, Haidilao began reopening stores. However, even after reopening, business was slow: patrons chose other options like takeaway over the communal hot pot dining experience. Haidilao also faced backlash for increasing prices