With living standards rising, more and more Chinese people love to eat out, especially at hotpot restaurants, where they splurged nearly $4 billion last year, a government-industry survey has found.

Hotpot restaurants account for nearly 36 per cent of the combined turnover of China's 100 major catering enterprises and their turnover touched nearly $4 billion, the survey has found.

It found that among the 100 major catering enterprises, there are 22 hotpot enterprises which operate 6,682 franchised restaurants across China, with an annual turnover of 30 billion yuan ($3.9 billion).

The 100 major catering enterprises realised 83.2 billion yuan ($10.9 billon) in combined turnover last year, a growth of 24.4 per cent from the previous year.

According to the survey conducted jointly by the ministry of commerce, China Cuisine Association and China National Commerce Information Centre, last year, the 100 units recorded 40.5 billion yuan ($5.3 billion) in gross assets, running 14,500 restaurants and employing one million people.

Of the 100 restaurants, 20 each chalked up more than one billion yuan ($131.6 million) in business turnover, nine more than the year-earlier level, while 33 each posted an annual turnover growth of 30 per cent to 50 per cent, 19 enterprises more.