A talented street food vendor in Zhengzhou City of central China's Henan Province has gone viral on social media for his exquisite designs of pancakes.
The 27-year-old man named Yang Qiankun can whip up many cute pancakes shaped animals, dolls, cultural relics, and even aircraft carriers, fighter jets and helicopters.
The stylish pancake went popular among primary school students in the city for the special design and the cheap price -- one yuan (about 14 U.S. cents) for one piece.
Yang's videos recording the pancake cooking and selling soon went popular on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and attracted tens of thousands of followers within just a few weeks.
"I have more than 10 categories of designs for the pancake covering such fields as the military industry, animals, architecture, cultural relics and seafood, to cater to the interests of my children customers. The inspirations may strike me in a sudden. Sometimes, I will also present ideas from my social media followers through my pancakes," Yang said.
With a master's degree of civil engineering, Yang came up with the idea of pancake art by accident when he was learning the cooking skill from his father after resignation from his previous job.
He said that at first he was surprised by the enthusiastic response from his student customers and online followers.
Now he feels delighted that his pancakes can not only satisfy the hunger as a food, but also extend happiness for children and adults as a gift.
"Some of my followers online asked me to design their favorite figures during the childhood. They asked for the customized designs as a treat for children. So I filmed two videos on these designs to fulfill their wishes. I found it was an interesting interaction between the people online and offline and a good conversation spanning time and space," Yang said.
Street food vendor in central China goes viral online for exquisite pancake art
China will take further steps to expand high-standard opening-up and create a new landscape of win-win cooperation in 2026, which marks the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said in a recent interview with China Media Group.
Wang said opening up and cooperation for mutual benefit are integral to Chinese modernization. This year, China will actively expand voluntary opening up.
The country will steadily open up such areas as value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, while accelerating comprehensive pilot and demonstration programs for expanded opening-up in the services sector, he noted.
"We will expand the scope and regions of unilateral opening-up and ensure the implementation of zero-tariff treatment on 100 percent of tariff lines for all African countries that have diplomatic relations with China. We will vigorously promote the effective implementation of policies for special customs operations of the Hainan Free Trade Port, further enhance the level of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, optimize the regional layout and coverage of pilot free trade zones, and support these zones in carrying out more robust institutional opening-up trials in areas such as market access, environmental standards and government procurement, so as to better leverage their role as comprehensive pilot platforms for reform and opening-up," said Wang.
Wang said China will promote the orderly planning of cross-border industrial and supply chains.
Efforts will be made to deepen economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, enhance integration and connectivity across production and supply chains, and encourage cooperation in areas including green development, the digital economy, green minerals, new infrastructure and new energy so as to help build global production and supply chain partnerships that are equal, inclusive and constructive, he noted.
"We will give play to the platform role of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, expand overseas marketing networks and explore international markets through outward investment, achieve mutual promotion between investment and trade, and advance the integrated development of trade and investment. We will also improve the overseas comprehensive service system and the national-level overseas comprehensive service platform," said the minister.
In addition, China will participate constructively in global economic governance, according to the minister.
In 2026, Wang said, China will pursue flexible and pragmatic approaches to negotiate trade and investment agreements with more willing countries and regions, while strengthening economic and trade cooperation under multilateral frameworks such as BRICS, G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to further promote mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.
China to expand high-standard opening-up to foster win-win cooperation: minister
