Baoding Cuisine & Local Specialties

Baoding food belongs to northern Chinese cuisine, featuring rich, robust flavors. Signature dishes include braised chicken, while iconic snacks are donkey meat burgers and sugar-coated haws on a stick.

For authentic braised chicken, besides Ma’s Old Chicken Shop, head to Mosque Street, where over a dozen stalls sell steaming whole chickens and chicken gizzards every day. The chickens sold by the three Liu brothers are the most famous, yet many counterfeit stalls exist, so be sure to check their shop signs carefully. Donkey meat burgers are a staple breakfast for local residents: tender chopped donkey meat is stuffed into a split baked sesame flatbread, boasting crispy crust and succulent meat.

Baoding’s sugar-coated haws are renowned across Hebei Province. They were even featured on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala one year, with varieties as diverse as those sold at Beijing temple fairs. Types include pure hawthorn, hawthorn stuffed with red bean paste, hawthorn stuffed with mung bean paste, and Chinese yam sticks. All are incredibly tempting, with the most expensive priced at only 3 yuan per skewer. The most reputable local brands are King of Sugar Haws and Lü’s Shop.

Restaurants such as Meishishan, Tianyi Palace and Bank of China Restaurant offer elegant surroundings with relatively higher prices. For hot pot, Donglaishun and Laochenggen are top choices. Countless small and medium-sized eateries spread across every street and alley, each boasting its own signature dishes.

Baiyangdian Lake in Baoding abounds in aquatic products. The famed Baiyangdian preserved duck eggs are large and tasty, ranking as a premium side dish to pair with wine. The lake’s reeds have thin, pale white, tough stalks with fine fibers. Various handcrafted reed-weave artworks made from them carry distinctive local styles. Almost every household living on the lake’s water villages can weave reed mats.

Huaimao Pickles of Baoding are a time-honored traditional side dish produced at Huaimao Pickle Garden in downtown Baoding. As early as the 10th year of the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty, they gained nationwide fame for their delicious taste. Moderately salty and sweet, crisp and tender, they are perfect accompaniments to meals.

Shopping venues in Baoding are concentrated. Yuhua Road near the Ancient Lotus Pond is lined with numerous stores. For handicrafts, visit the Arts & Crafts Store on Yuhua Road, which sells local iron balls and other handmade goods. If you want to buy Baoding’s sweet wheat paste and pickles, any grocery store, supermarket or large shop carries a full range of packaged products, both deluxe and simple packaging options available.

With a history of over 300 years, Huaimao’s pickles, wheat paste, soy sauce and vinegar enjoy nationwide fame and are beloved by people from all walks of life. Its sweet wheat paste, one of the "Three Treasures of Baoding", has an annual output of 8,000 tons, ranking first in national sales volume.

A legendary local staple, it uses moderately tender young donkey meat elaborately prepared, paired with freshly baked soft-crisp flatbread, leaving an endless lingering aftertaste.

Founded in 1919 and named after its creator Bai Yunzhang. These buns feature thin, narrow wrappers filled with abundant juicy meat. When you shake a bun gently, the meatball filling jiggles freely inside. Premium ingredients are strictly selected: fresh beef and mutton, exclusively tender marbled back meat, and hand-ground sesame oil purchased from designated suppliers. The unique production process begins with marinating minced meat in premium soy sauce and sweet wheat paste, softening it with Sichuan pepper and star anise water, then blending in hand-ground sesame oil, monosodium glutamate, chopped green onions, minced ginger and squeezed dry chopped vegetables.

Mancheng strawberries are famous nationwide, with bright crimson fruits that balance sweet and sour flavors. Their vitamin C content is twice that of citrus fruits. Covering a planting area of 70,000 mu with an annual output of 90,000 tons, Mancheng is officially titled the "Hometown of Strawberries".

Made from high-quality soybeans through ten elaborate procedures: screening, soaking, grinding, boiling, filtering residues, coagulating, pressing into sheets, shredding, spiced stewing and bundling. The five-spice shredded tofu strips are suitable for all ages, ideal for daily family meals and travel snacks, hailed as the "King of Vegetarian Dishes".