Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant was founded in the third year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1864 AD), and the existing old store facade was built in the 14th year of Guangxu (1888 AD). The large characters carved on the bricks above the facade are eye-catching, with "Quanjude" in the middle, "Old Lupu" on the left, and "Chicken and Duck Shop" on the right. There are also two banners hanging next to the door, which read "The banquet is arranged, and there are private seats inside" and "Seasonal snacks, you can drink as you like."

The plaque of "Quanjude" when it was founded is engraved on the lintel of the old wall. Despite more than a century of wind, frost, rain and snow, the three brick-engraved characters "Quanjude" are still vaguely discernible. It is now displayed in the shop.

Yang Quanren (1822-1890), whose real name was Shoushan and whose courtesy name was Quanren, was the founder of Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant and a native of Yangjiazhai, Jixian County, Hebei Province. When I first arrived in Beijing, I sold raw chickens and ducks in Qianmen Meat Market. The business became more and more prosperous, and I also gained some savings. In 1864, there was a grocery store run by Shanxi people in the Meat Market Alley that could not continue to operate. After being introduced, Yang Quanren took over the floor of the grocery store and opened a hanging stove shop by himself. The name of this grocery store is Dejuquan, which means "Gathering together with virtue, making money with virtue." Yang Quanren reversed the name and changed it to Quanjude. The whole word implies his name, Jude, which means "to gather virtue together, and to have abundant wealth".

It is said that when Yang Quanren opened Quanjude, he hired a Feng Shui master. The master said that the two small alleys next to the store are two sedan poles, and a building in the middle is equivalent to lifting a sedan. It will definitely work. Legends remain legends, but under his painstaking management, Quanjude has slowly developed from an ordinary oven shop into a veritable restaurant featuring hanging oven roast duck and various stir-fry dishes.