After Zheng He's voyage to the West in the early Ming Dynasty, envoys from various countries came to China to "meet on the road". According to the research of experts and scholars, during the 80 years from February of the second year of Hongwu to August of the fourteenth year of Zheng Tong, envoys from Asian and African countries made 694 missions to China. Especially in the early Ming and Five Dynasties, Yongle Dynasty was the most frequent. In the twenty-first year of Yongle, he came 3 18 times, with an average of 15 times a year.

During Zheng He's voyage to the West, the envoys frequently sent to China by Asian and African countries, regardless of the number of envoys and whether there were any tributes, were received grandly and generously by the Ming government, and they all returned home on impulse with full loads. During this period, the posthouse, guild hall, restaurant and restaurant industry in Nanjing flourished, which still has a positive and far-reaching impact on the catering hotel industry in Nanjing.

In order to provide a good rest place for foreign envoys, the Ming government set up a splendid, luxurious and comfortable Huitong Pavilion (first-class hospitality ambassador) and Wuman Post (entourage of hospitality ambassador) in Nanjing as their accommodation places. Provide food and shelter for messengers. According to the number of people coming and the level of official rank, draw up a good menu and hand it over to Guanglu Temple for processing. In addition to wine, meat, fruit, tea, noodles and other foods, three meals a day are also held in the same hall. The Ritual Department arranged the date of the banquet and invited a minister to accompany it. Every year, they are always invited to the grand banquet of four major festivals: New Year's Day, suburban sacrifice, sacred birthday and winter solstice.

During the Hongwu period, sixteen famous restaurants were built on the main roads inside and outside Nanjing, namely: Qingjiang Building, Heming Building, Zuixian Building, Jixian Building, Lemin Building, Heather Building, Beishi Building, Light Smoke Building, Liu Cuilou, Meiyan Building, Lianfen Building, Acura Building, Drum Tower, Laibin Building and Retranslation Building. Nanjing/