As this year's traditional Dragon Boat Festival just around the corner, food workshops in Taiyuan -- capital of north China's Shanxi Province -- are busy making zongzi, a time-honored sticky rice dumpling that Chinese people eat during the public holiday.
The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, is a traditional holiday in China. Celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese lunar calendar, it will fall on May 31 this year.
At a heritage workshop in the city, the workers are making "Jinci Mizong," a city-level intangible cultural heritage made of sticky rice with honey-soaked dates. The name Jinci comes from the 1,600-year-old Jinci Temple located in the city.
The workers are all busy hand-wrapping up to 10,000 zongzi daily using centuries-old techniques. The glutinous rice parcels each filled with three honey-soaked dates and bound with broad bomboo leaves will sell out immediately after going out of the workshop gate.
"In the past few days, we have been able to make over 3,000 such zongzi every day. And during the peak period in the next three to four days, we can generate a daily output of 5,000 to 10,000 zongzi. They are sold out on the same day they are made. Before the Dragon Boat Festival, supply will not be able to meet demand," said Wu Liangen, a Jinci Mizong artisan.
In Tiayuan, the festival is observed to honor Tai Di -- an ancient flood control hero in Chinese mythology -- through customs like zongzi making.
Demand booms for sticky rice dumplings before traditional festival in north China's Shanxi
Demand booms for sticky rice dumplings before traditional festival in north China's Shanxi
Demand booms for sticky rice dumplings before traditional festival in north China's Shanxi
