Recently, a video has become popular on Chinese social media. In the video, a container truck turns into a banquet (宴会) hall in just six minutes. These interesting vehicles have been around for a while now. They first appeared in China’s Inner Mongolia region and proved so popular there that they quickly expanded to neighboring provinces like Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Gansu. More recently, they have been seen in the countryside of northern Shanxi, northern Hebei, and western Shandong. The trucks can transform (变形) in just six minutes and can hold up to 200 people.
The trucks are mainly popular in the countryside where people rent them to organize various events, from weddings to local festivals and parties. The inside of the truck looks like a normal restaurant and each truck has air conditioning, big screens, and karaoke stuff. The banquet hall does not include a kitchen; therefore, food must be prepared somewhere else and is only served within the mobile restaurant.
Mr Liu owns a Transformer truck. He said that he rents out his 17.5-meter-long vehicle for various events, charging about 8,000 yuan for two days. But Liu says that it’ll be a while until he wins back his investment into the truck which cost him 700,000 yuan.