BEIJING - A big Peking duck dinner is certainly delicious. Some people, however, worry it will make them fat.

At the Da Dong restaurant here in the Chinese capital, those people might worry less: They did a little weightlifting before their meal.

That's because the menus at Da Dong are heavier than a small gym dumbbell: They weigh in at 5 pounds, 4 ounces. The 140-page menu measures 20 inches tall. It is 15 inches wide. And it is more than an inch thick.

Da Dong's menu is so big it's divided into chapters. Around 200 dishes are listed. These are pictured in colorful photos.

Menu Carved In Wood

Da Dong's huge menu is among the most eye-popping in town. But it's hardly the only big one. All over China, restaurants have been supersizing their menus.

Middle-8th in Beijing uses a 128-page, 3-pound menu. At Pure Lotus, the golden-paged menu is huge: It stretches 2 1/2 feet wide and weighs 4 pounds, 5 ounces. Another of its menus is carved into an inch-thick wooden plank. This is also 2 1/2 feet wide.

Countless other restaurants offer giant-sized menus. Many are as large and colorful as American high school yearbooks.

Long Chinese menus are hardly new; just ask anyone who's ordered Chinese takeout in the U.S. But in general, Chinese menus in the U.S. are slimmer than in China.

There are many explanations for China's growing menus.

Chinese cooking has a wide range of styles. It is also very adjustable. Cooks can produce many different dishes out of the same few ingredients. Just switching from boiling to frying gives cooks a different dish. So does using a slightly different sauce. This makes it easy for cooks to add lots of new dishes.

Also, Chinese diners are fond of family-style ordering, in which everyone shares dishes. For this reason, people like having lots of choices. That way, it's possible to find things that everyone likes.

In addition, people from different parts of China like different kinds of food. Those from Sichuan, for example, like spicy food. On the other hand, those from Shanghai don't. Restaurants try to please both tastes.

"Takeout" Menu In A Suitcase

Many Chinese like to show their generosity. One way to do this is to treat people to fancy meals. Ordering unusual and expensive dishes makes the host feel good.

Restaurant-owner Jen Lin-Liu offers yet another explanation for the giant menus. She says the supersizing represents two things: China's past as a poor country, mixed with its new wealth.

The Chinese can now afford all sorts of food they couldn't before, she said. They are eager to try new things.

Dong Zhenxiang is the owner of Da Dong. He says he started to have a problem as his menus got fancier: Customers were stealing them. Menus were disappearing so fast it made things difficult.

Customers would "put them in their bags or under their coats," he said. "We need about 200 menus" each night. But so many were being stolen, "we'd get down to 100." There "wouldn't be enough to allow people to order."

Some restaurant-owners might have switched to simpler, cheaper menus. But Dong decided to make his menus even bigger.

Now stealing is way down: Menus have gotten so big they are difficult to take. Still, Dong said, "we did have one person come in with a suitcase and manage to get one that way."

If diners really want to take home a menu, Dong said, there is a way: They can buy last season's for $200.