Medical journal Lancet's senior editor visits Lancet grill in Beijing

Summerskill poses at the grill The Lancet in Beijing Oct 15, 2017. (Photo/The grill's Weibo account)

The popular Beijing grill "The Lancet", which is named after the famous medical journal, received a special customer on Sunday --- William Summerskill, one of the four senior executive editors of the journal, according to the grill's weibo account.

The grill invested by a group of surgeons and graduates from Tsinghua University and Peking University, caught internet attention in early October when it published an article on its WeChat account on September 21 in which it advertised discounts to scholars whose published papers received influential citation indexes such as SCI, SSCI, and CSSCI in the past five years.

The article received about 100,000 views within one hour of publishing, according to China Youth Daily.

The instant fame caught the attention of both general public and the medical community, including Summerskill.

To have a first-hand experience of the grill, Summerskill, who is in China for a medical conference, went for a bite without any fanfare or telling anybody in advance. But as the restaurant was full and there was a long waiting line, one of his two companions, Helena Hui Wang, Asia executive editor of the journal, asked the service staff members to call the founder.

Summerskill and his companions ordered 17 yangrouchuan, or lamb kebabs, according to the grill's founder.

He also looked at the record of the scholars who received discounts for their papers' citations.

He refused the founder's offer for a free meal, saying he couldn't accept that without publishing a paper in the journal. He insisted on making a full payment to show his respect to the young Chinese surgeons who have such innovative and meaningful ideas.

He jokingly said that any scholar whose paper is published in The Lancet later can get a congratulation note saying "Free meal at The Lancet".

Before leaving the grill, Summerskill gave a key chain with "The Lancet" embossed on it as a gift to the founder.

Summerskill's visit generated heated online discussion. A netizen posted, "A 5A-level tourist attraction that a medical student must visit," along with the founder's story on weibo.

The grill opened in April and the founders started the business to ease their financial burden, according to earlier reports by China Youth Daily.