Nowadays, people prefer to eat ching bo leung with an ice cream ball on top. [Photo/ hinews.cn]

For many people from Hainan province, nothing beats a bowl of ching bo leung, or qingbuliang, on a scorching summer day.

Ching bo leung is a traditional dessert with ingredients that usually include peanuts, red bean, mung bean, macaroni, fresh coconut flesh, red dates, watermelon pulp, pineapple pulp, quail egg, bean jelly, and taro, according to different formulas. Nowadays, it is popular to add an ice cream ball on top of a bowl of ching bo leung.

According to a folk story, the dessert got its name in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC). When the army of the First Emperor of Qin battled in the Lingnan region, where Guangxi and Guangdong provinces now situate, soldiers from the Central Plains fell ill due to the damp climate. The doctor in the army then invented a nutritious porridge that can dispel damp and heat, which could be abbreviated as "清补凉" (qingbuliang) in ancient Chinese. 

To make the special delicacy, the first step is to cook the above materials separately. Then, add brown sugar into ice water, and mix the above materials together. Lastly, add coconut juice or brown syrup.

With the changes of the times, as well as social and economic development, people's demands for food are getting higher and more diversified, but ching bo leung has always remained one of Hainan's most popular specialty snacks. In some time-honored restaurants enjoying a long-lasting reputation, every day in the evening, there are people lining up to buy and taste the genuine Hainan flavor despite having to spend a long time waiting for it.