To Chinese, Xi Is a One-Man Michelin Guide

choi

Te-Ping Chen, China's President Is a One-Man Michelin Guide; Tourists retrace Xi Jinping's step to an English pub, Iowa farm. Wall Street Journal, Dec 16,2016 (front page).
http://www.wsj.com/articles/xi-j ... does-too-1481815201

Note:
(a) "The Plough at Cadsden may be the most famous pub in China. But it isn't in China. * * * the pub had sat much as it has for centuries. * * * 'We're a quaint pub in a little hamlet. It’s very damp. It's very wet,' said Paul Hackett, the Plough’s manager.  Undaunted, Chinese come to pose for snapshots in front of a photo of Mr Xi and David Cameron, then UK prime minister, drinking there."
(i) Cadsden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadsden
(a hamlet in South Buckinghamshire; "The origin of the name * * * is doubtful and it is not known when it was first used"/ The Plough at Cadsden is a country pub which is used by Prime Ministers due to its proximity to Chequers)
(ii) Despite my great effort, I fail to unearth the name origin of the pub: The Plough.
(iii) Chequers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chequers
(approximately 65 kilometers (40 miles) WNW by road from central London)

section 1 Origin of the name Chequers: "The original house probably gained its name in the 12th century because it may have been built or inhabited by an individual named Elias Ostiarius (or de Scaccario), who was acquiring land in the Ellesborough area at the time. The name 'Ostiarius' meant an usher of the Court of the Exchequer. Elias Ostiarius' coat of arms included the chequer board of the Exchequer, so it is likely he named his estate after his arms and position at court.

(A) Latin-English dictionary:
* ostiarius (noun masculine; from [Latin noun neuter] ostium ‎[which is cognate with ōs mouth] door): :porter, doorman"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ostiarius
(B) You do not have to understand the section fully, because it will be explained in (b).

choi

(b) Exchequer
(i) James B Shannon, The Medieval Calculator. Dec 16, 2014.
https://jamesbshannon.com/2014/12/16/the-medieval-calculator/
(ii) The Dialogue Concerning the Exchequer. circa 1180. Avalon Project, Yale University, undated.
avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/excheq.asp
(iii)
(A) Dialogus de Scaccario
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialogus_de_Scaccario
(written in Latin; It has been repeatedly republished and translated [including the copy at Yale University], most recently in 2007)
(B) Exchequer Records. Medieval Writing, undated.
http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/word/exchequer.htm
(iv)
(A) Avalon Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon_Project
(B) Avalon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon
("literally meaning 'the isle of fruit [or apple] trees') is a legendary [ie, fictional] island featured in the Arthurian legend")
(v) etymology:
(A) exchequer (n): " * * * from Medieval Latin scaccarium 'chess board' * * * Respelled with an -x- based on the mistaken belief that it originally was a Latin ex- word"
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=exchequer
(B) Of course the Latin root of "exchequer" is scaccarium, not one starting with "ex."

Latin-English dictionary:
* scaccarium (noun neuter; from *scaccus ‎shah, king +‎ -ārium ‎place for)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/scaccarium

choi

(c) "Leslie Lee, a Chinese businesswoman in London, said she drove to the Plough the day after Mr Xi's visit. She hadn;t been impressed by UK cuisine and wanted to sample what China's leader tried. 'I felt that if Xi Dada went, afterwards, for sure a lot of Chinese people also would go,' she said, although she found the fish and chips no better than in London.  Early this month, the Plough, where Mr Xi also had fish and chips, was bought by a London-registered group of Chinese investors on undisclosed terms.  The 16th-century pub's new owner, SinoFortone Investment, plans to open 100 pubs in China over three years, said Peter Zhang, its managing director. It will style them on the Plough and serve some of the same fare."

Liam Coleman, The Plough at Cadsden Sold to Chinese Investors. Morning Advertiser, Dec 5, 2016
www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Lega ... o-Chinese-investors
("The Plough at Cadsden, Buckinghamshire, is the nearest pub to the Prime Minister's country residence, Chequers;" sold through a real estate agency Christie & Co to SinoFortune [sic; should be 'SinoFortone 中富集团'] Investment managing director Dr Peter Zhang 张羽)

(d) "A Hong Kong publication jokingly called him China's 'Michelin Guide.'  Ever since Mr Xi visited the Kimberley-family farm in Maxwell, Iowa, in 2012, the place has seen droves of Chinese visitors. Rick Kimberley * * * [and his] 4,000-acre farm of soybeans and corn. * * * One [Chinese visitor to the farm] was Merrina Lan, a high-school student from Beijing studying in Ames, Iowa * * * Mr Kimberley said he and his wife show visitors around whenever possible. 'The majority have even been into our home,' he said. * * * Chinese businessmen have visited, Mr. Kimberley said, and the family recently signed memorandums of understanding with officials in two Chinese provinces to help build model farms in China, though details are still unclear."
(i) Maxwell, Iowa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell,_Iowa
(a city of 920 at the 2010 census; is part of the Ames, Iowa Metropolitan Statistical Area [southeast of Ames in the same county])
(ii) Ames, Iowa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames,_Iowa
(30 miles (48 km) north of Des Moines, it had a 2010 population of 58,965; home of Iowa State University (ISU); section 1 History)

(e) "Xi booms can go bust, as one did with Greene King IPA. After Mr Xi's Plough visit, interest spilled over in that British beer he sampled there.  For about six months, Peter Bloxham, a British beer importer in Beijing, was importing three to four times as much of the IPA as he had before. Others imported it, too.  'The market was quickly flooded,' said Mr Bloxham, 'and suddenly it just collapsed.' "

Greene King IPA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greene_King_IPA