(11 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beijing, China – 11 February 2025
1. Various of a craftsman making yuanxiao
2. Various of Qiu Yunhe, manager of Jinfang Snacks Shop, packing and selling yuanxiao
3. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Ms. Yang, Beijing resident:
“Of course it’s worth it. It’s only once a year, the yuanxiao are not available every day. It’s only an annual thing, so it’s worthwhile. The elderly in my family like eating yuanxiao. It’s also good to send yuanxiao to friends as a gift. Jinfang is famous for its Beijing snacks.”
4. People queuing for yuanxiao
5 SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Li Guoying, Beijing resident:
“It’s not only a nostalgic sentiment for native Beijingers (to buy yuanxiao). The flavor of them makes you want to come back here every year to purchase again. I don’t know why, if you have to ask, then I think it tastes like (the yuanxiao) in our childhood. The yuanxiao here remind me of that.”
6. Various of a craftsman making yuanxiao
7. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Cui Jingdong, Beijing resident:
“My favorite flavor is black sesame. In my family, my father likes the five-nut flavor and I bought some for him. I bought about 1.5 kilograms today, including for my family and friends.”
8. People buying yuanxiao
9. Track of a long queue for yuanxiao outside Jinfang Snacks Shop
STORYLINE:
What is charming enough to make people in Beijing wait outside for an hour in sub-zero temperatures? The answer is yuanxiao, a traditional Chinese food made with glutinous rice flour and sweet fillings.
The famed Jinfang Snacks Shop in downtown Beijing has seen its peak season for yuanxiao.
The shop’s Ciqikou branch sold over 25,000 kilograms of yuanxiao on Monday, and the amount is expected to surpass 35,000 kilograms on Tuesday.
The pronunciation of “sticky” in Chinese is the same as “year,” so people connect it with phrases expressing good wishes for the year.
Yuanxiao are often consumed around the time of the Lantern Festival as part of the celebration.
They usually come in a variety of flavors, including black sesame, five-nut, hawthorn and the classic assorted-flavor.
In recent years, more innovative flavors such as blueberries, durian and chocolate have also been provided.
It takes multiple steps for yuanxiao to appear in their final shape of white round balls, including baking ingredients, preparing fillings and compressing them into small blocks, making the dough, and finally rolling the yuanxiao.
During this peak season, craftsmen at Jinfang Snacks Shop start rolling yuanxiao early in the morning so that demands of hundreds of customers waiting in cold winter weather can be met.
Hundreds of people were seen in three different places on Tuesday.
Qiu said more than 100 already showed up at 6:30am (local time).
People generally had to wait for an hour to be able to buy the sought-after yuanxiao from Jinfang.
Beijing resident Ms. Yang said her feet were freezing during her 90-minute wait, but she thought it was totally worth it.
It was a family tradition for the 54-year-old to eat yuanxiao made by Jinfang since her childhood.
“Of course it’s worth it. It’s only once a year, the yuanxiao are not available every day. It’s only an annual thing, so it’s worthwhile,” she said, after buying 3 kilograms of yuanxiao, including her favorite flavors of hawthorn and chocolate.
Another resident Li Guoying spent almost two hours queuing up before getting her yuanxiao.
The Lantern Festival falls on this Wednesday, marking the epilogue of the celebration of the Chinese New Year.
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