Eight Ditch Lamb Soup
Baijiayizi Hand-Pulled Noodles are a specialty of Longhua — a true local delicacy. To understand these noodles, you first need to learn about white buckwheat flour. Many people are familiar with buckwheat, but since it’s usually black, how can there be such a thing as white buckwheat flour? It turns out that the variety is the same; the difference lies in the processing method. Before milling, the buckwheat grains...
The Complete Donkey Meat Feast features premium donkey meat delicacies including Eight-Treasure Donkey Meat, Donkey Intestines, Braised Donkey Face, Spicy Donkey Jerky, Garlic-Flavored Donkey Liver, Premium Donkey Skin, Abalone Sauce Donkey Ribs, Premium Donkey Brain, and Three Donkey Dishes. Selected from top-quality ingredients, meticulously prepared, and bursting with delicious flavors.…
Liangjiatai Red Star Apples are a specialty of Liangjiatai Township in Kuancheng County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. These apples are large in size and have a bright, vibrant color. The skin is relatively thin, and the flesh is sweet and delicious, leaving a lasting aftertaste. Most notably, the fragrance of Liangjiatai Red Star Apples can be detected from a considerable distance. The Red Star apple variety was originally introduced from...
Luanhua hawthorn is a specialty of Luanhua County in Chengde City, Hebei Province. The county is abundant in hawthorn. By boiling hawthorn, white sugar, and clean water, then filtering the mixture, a fruit juice is produced. This beverage is sweet and tangy in flavor, with benefits such as relieving summer heat, stimulating appetite, promoting saliva production, softening blood vessels, and lowering blood pressure. The hawthorn industry was once a thriving sector in Luanhua County. In 1986, there were nearly ten thousand family-run hawthorn orchards across the county...
Longhua Mountain Apricots are a specialty of Longhua County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. The county has consistently focused on developing the mountain apricot industry as a key livelihood and income-generating sector. Through years of continuous management and development, it has now become one of the larger and higher-quality mountain apricot resource regions in North China. Longhua is located at the northern part of Hebei Province, on the eastern foothills of the Yanshan Mountains...
Imperial Court Pastry Cake is a specialty of Pingquan County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. The pastry is fragrant, crispy, sweet, and exquisitely packaged, making it an excellent choice for entertaining honored guests or gifting to relatives and friends. As a gift item, it is often taken to countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Commonly known as sugar cake, the Imperial Court Pastry Cake was originally one of the imperial court delicacies of the Qing Dynasty. The imperial chef Liu Decai...
Xinglong Shiitake Mushrooms are a specialty of Xinglong County in Chengde City, Hebei Province. These mushrooms are known for their dense and firm fruiting bodies, large size, thick flesh, well-rounded caps, short stems that resist opening prematurely, high yield, excellent quality, bright color, pleasant taste, pure flavor, delicate aroma, and chewy texture. The cultivation of Xinglong Shiitake Mushrooms began sporadically in the 1980s...
Xinglong apples are a specialty of Xinglong County in Chengde City, Hebei Province. Thanks to the large diurnal temperature variation, abundant sunlight, and mineral-rich soil, these apples are large, thin-skinned, brightly colored, sweet and delicious, and of excellent quality. They are one of the main fruit products of Xinglong County. In 1995, Lanche Yu Village in Banbi Mountain Town began focusing on branding,...
Xinglong walnuts are a specialty of Xinglong County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. Walnuts are a traditionally cultivated fruit tree in Xinglong, grown throughout the region, with a higher concentration in the southwestern townships. There are many varieties of Xinglong walnuts, characterized by their thin shells, full kernels, golden-yellow color, and oil content of around 60%. Xinglong walnuts have very high economic value—their kernels are rich in protein...
Xinglong persimmons are a specialty of Xinglong County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. Persimmon cultivation has long been traditional in Xinglong. The fruit is notable for its large size, honey-like sweetness, juicy flesh, and golden-yellow color — living up to the praise that “its color outshines golden silk, and its taste surpasses the clearest nectar.” Varieties of Xinglong’s signature persimmons include Mopan persimmons and Xiaohuo persimmons. They contain glucose, fructose,…
Longhua Rice is a specialty of Longhua County in Chengde City, Hebei Province. Known for its excellent taste, high nutritional value, and pollution-free quality, it is highly popular in the market and has long been hailed as the "Home of Rice in Hebei." Longhua Rice has been awarded the status of a Geographical Indication Protected Product. Longhua County is the place where Dong Cunrui, a nationally renowned war hero, made the ultimate sacrifice. It is located in the central part of Chengde City...
Chengde is abundant in chestnuts, offering a wide variety such as black-skinned chestnuts, red-skinned chestnuts, red-oil-skinned chestnuts, large yellow chestnuts, white-skinned chestnuts, green-mature chestnuts, cluster-growing chestnuts, double-kernel chestnuts, and more. Particularly notable are the chestnuts produced in Xinglong and Kuancheng counties—renowned high-quality varieties within China collectively known as “Eastern Beijing (Jingdong) Chestnuts.” Eastern Jingdong chestnuts…
The high-platform "banner shoes" worn by Manchu women, also known as Manchu embroidered shoes. Their most distinctive feature is the exceptionally high sole, which comes in two wooden sole shapes: the wide-top-narrow-bottom flowerpot shape and the wide-top-round-bottom horseshoe shape. As a result, they are commonly referred to as "flowerpot bottom" shoes or "horseshoe bottom" shoes, collectively known as "high-platform shoes." The soles are made of wood and are generally...
The magua is a garment favored by the Manchu people. Worn over a long robe, it is often praised as the “long robe and magua.” Maguas come in various styles such as the dajin (large front), duijin (straight front), and pipa jin (pipa front). Originally a jacket worn by the Manchu during horseback archery, it later became everyday outerwear worn over robes. Featuring a high collar and straight front, with slits on all sides, it typically reaches the waist. The sleeves are slightly…
Manchu women favored wearing wooden-soled shoes, reflecting the ancient custom of their ancestors to “carve wood into footwear.” By the early Qing Dynasty, these had evolved into high-heeled, wooden-soled women’s shoes, especially popular among noble Manchu women. Manchu women generally did not practice foot binding and often had natural feet, typically wearing wide and roomy banner shoes. These embroidered banner shoes featured low vamps, short fronts…
The blue-printed blotted cloth produced locally in Kuancheng uses raw material known as “home-woven cloth,” commonly referred to as “country cloth.” The dyeing and printing techniques mainly developed in areas such as Dashizhuzi Village, Shuangsongting, and Dayanzhangzi in Dashizhuzi Township within Kuancheng Manchu Autonomous County (where the local population is predominantly Manchu). The making of folk blotted cloth in Kuancheng dates back to very early times and has been passed down for several hundred years to this day. According to the fourth-generation inheritor, his ancestors had been engaged in the craft of making “blotted cloth” during agricultural off-seasons. In earlier years, when cloth was in severe shortage across the country, rural households mostly obtained their cloth by taking self-grown cotton to traditional weaving families to be spun into fabric for use. “Home-woven cloth” is versatile and can be used for dyeing clothing materials, bedding, door curtains, etc. The craft is complex and traditional. Weaving artisans were commonly called “loom masters” in the countryside (and could also work mobile jobs). In earlier years, rural households would go to the “loom master’s” home in advance to have their cloth measured (i.e., specifying the dimensions needed), and then the “loom master” would weave the cloth on the loom. Later, as looms became nearly ubiquitous in rural households, farmers would spin their own “home-woven cloth” from cotton, dye it (with indigo), and produce a series of finished products such as blue-printed “blotted cloth” and “striped cloth.”
“Yellow Flag Millet,” also known as “Emperor Kangxi’s Tribute Rice,” is produced in Leyuan Township and Liangui Township of Huangqi Town, Fengning Manchu Autonomous County, Hebei Province. Located at 42 degrees north latitude, 230 kilometers directly north of Beijing and at the source of the Chaobai River, the area boasts fertile soil, a cool climate, and moderate rainfall—ideal conditions for cereal crops. The entire production chain follows organic farming practices…
Bobian noodles are a specialty of Longhua—truly a local specialty. To understand Bobian noodles, you first need to know about white buckwheat flour. Many people are familiar with buckwheat, but since buckwheat is usually black, how can there be white buckwheat flour? It turns out that the variety is the same; the difference lies in the processing method. Before milling, the black husk on the buckwheat kernel is first removed...
Fengning oats are a specialty of Fengning County, Chengde City, Hebei Province. Oats are a highly nutritious cereal crop, boasting the highest protein content among grain crops, as well as all eight essential amino acids required by the human body in a relatively balanced composition. Oats, a type of barley also known as naked oats, are one of the main crops grown on the Bashang Plateau of Fengning County, Hebei...