About Din Tai Fung
Whenever the name Din Tai Fung has been mentioned, the first impression popping out is usually its tasty xiao long bao which has the succulent filling folded by a delicate bun, serving fabulous satisfaction to the palate but never feeling over rich, everything you could acquire from each bite of it is the delightful perfection.
Yet how comes Din Tai Fung obtained its reputation? Where does the name of Din Tai Fung come from, and how did the enterprise grow up? This is the story about Din Tai Fung.
Din Tai Fung's founder, Mr. Yang Bing-Yi, was born in 1927 in China's Shanxi province.
In the summer of 1948, when the major part of China's mainland was suffered in the civil war, the 21-year old Yang made his decision to leave the mainland and make his way into the world. He boarded the ship Hualian 花莲号 in Shanghai and voyaged to Taiwan for a reunion with his aunt and uncle. With their help, he got his first job in Taiwan as a deliveryman for a cooking oil retailer Heng Tai Fung.
Two years later, he received acknowledgment from the shop's owner for his honesty and hardworking, hence, the owner put more trust in him and delegated more duties to Yang.
At the age of 28, Bing-Yi Yang married Lai Pen-Mei who was also one of the employees of Heng Tai Fung at the time, and they worked together for another four years at Heng Tai Fung.
It was until the day an investment of Heng Tai Fung's owner failed, the store was forced to close due to the tremendous loss caused by the investment failure which was impossible to recover from. After losing jobs from the incident, Yang Bing-Yi and his wife decided to start their own business. To commemorate the memorable working period at Heng Tai Fung, as well as to express their gratitude to their former employer, they named their own business Din Tai Fung, which is a combination of the names of Heng Tai Fung and Din Mei Oils, the name of their supplier.
The debut of the store was given in 1958 when was the period even obtaining a telephone number was difficult. The number 2321-8927 still kept in use at the original location in Xinyi is the one Yang Bing-Yi managed to acquire in 1958. He also managed to receive a signboard as a gift given by a famous calligrapher Yu You-Ren. The letters, which read: Din Tai Fung Oil Retail, were framed and hung on the wall next to the shop's front entrance.
