Shark's fin soup, bear's paw, and other dishes taken off the menu for 2008 Olympics!

[Ninong]

From News From Beijing 2008:

Meanwhile certain food items that might “upset” foreigners are to be removed from restaurants ahead of the Beijing 2008 Games said state media Wednesday. The items include shark’s fin, swallow’s nest, bear’s paw, and snake.

The Xinhua News Agency quoted Xu Zhihong, a Beijing deputy to the National People’s Congress saying, “serving shark’s fin to foreign guests during the Olympic Games could greatly hurt China’s image and officials should start removing the dish from the dining tables right now. It is not only an environmental issue but one that has a direct bearing on the image of Chinese people”.

The agency said imports of shark’s fin has continued to rise in recent years despite campaigns to persuade Chinese people not to eat it. Xu said the dish is “quite often a must on local governments' reception menus”.

P.S. -- The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization estimated that 100 million sharks are caught annually, but some experts said they believe the true figure could be up to 200 million. Most sharks are caught solely for their fins and are dumped back into the sea to die once the fins have been hacked off.