What Delicious Food Is There in Tongxiang?

It boasts tender, crisp texture and exquisite packaging, and is served on several major domestic airlines.

Though plain-looking, they deliver an outstanding sweet flavour well-known to all locals of Tongxiang, rarely available to visitors from other regions.

A time-honoured famous pastry native to Wuzhen in Tongxiang. Records in Records of Wuqing Town trace its history back over 100 years. Folk tales say it was invented from a quarrel between a wife and her sister-in-law, hence its name. Resembling chess-piece cakes yet slightly larger, it shares raw materials with crisp sugar candy: flour, white sugar, sesame seeds and lard. Nevertheless, it tastes far more delightful, featuring a rich oily texture without greasiness, crisp layers that hold their shape, aromatic glutinous crumb and a balanced sweet-salty flavour.

Also known as Zuili plums, they originate from Taoyuan Village, Tudian Town, Tongxiang City. When fully ripe, the flesh turns entirely into smooth juice. Peel off its purplish-black skin, hold the fruit to your lips and take a gentle suck, and sweet juicy flesh will fill your mouth instantly.

Legend has it these plums can truly intoxicate people. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, Xi Shi ate too many of them and fell into a charming drunken stupor, giving the fruit its name "Drunken Plums". Ancient poems record: They say Xi Shi once pinched each fruit,

Her fingermarks linger on every plum to this day. Mountain elders sink drunk in mud each passing day...

Also called Small Tang Yellow or Little White Chrysanthemums, they are a specialty of the Hangzhou region. Together with Chuju and Bozhou chrysanthemums from Anhui and Deng chrysanthemums from Henan, they rank among China’s most renowned tea chrysanthemums. Hang chrysanthemums have a long cultivation history in China, and "Hang Tribute White Chrysanthemums" are always mentioned alongside the famous Longjing Tea, once presented as imperial tributes in ancient times.

Folk legend tells that Goddess Maming, patron deity of sericulture (also called the Silkworm Blossom Goddess), once tasted malt sprout flat cakes when she descended to the mortal world to offer incense. Therefore, every Pure Brightness Festival, these cakes become an essential sacrificial offering for silkworm farmers to worship Goddess Maming, as well as a premium delicacy for entertaining guests and gifting relatives and friends.

A celebrated traditional Tongxiang specialty with a roughly 300-year history. The Records of Tongxiang County compiled in the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty notes: "Chili sauce is produced within Tongxiang City. To make it, chillies are stir-fried to boiling in sesame oil, finely ground, sieved and blended into flour to create its distinctive flavour." Tongxiang chili sauce is famed for its glossy bright red colour, rich aroma and harmonious sweet-spicy taste. Folklore claims Emperor Qianlong designated it an imperial tribute.

Tongxiang is a major production base of Hu sheep. Braised mutton cooked with Hu sheep meat is a classic local dish around Tongxiang, with the finest versions prepared in Puyuan and Wuzhen.

Local rural households have a custom of brewing wine from home-grown glutinous rice at year-end. The finished wine is milky white with a sweet palatable taste, commonly called sweet rice wine, and named Three-White Rice Wine in Wuzhen, a beverage popular across Tongxiang for centuries. Records of Wuqing Town explains its name: "Wine brewed from glutinous millet, boiled and stored long-term. Fermentation cakes are made of white flour, and the wine uses white rice and clear white water — thus titled Three-White Rice Wine."

Green rice cakes are green pastries made with the juice of shepherd’s purse. Mugwort juice is mixed thoroughly with glutinous rice flour, then filled with red bean paste, jujube puree or other fillings, lined with reed leaves and steamed in bamboo baskets. Freshly steamed green rice cakes are bright green and wonderfully fragrant. Their soft green wrappers are mildly sweet and non-greasy, carrying a faint lingering grassy aroma. Slightly chewy yet not sticky on teeth, paired with light sweet red bean paste, they melt the moment they touch your tongue.