After Sha County Snacks has erected high-rise buildings: Strengthening the industry chain, promoting overseas business, and helping more people become entrepreneurs.
On December 7, the 28th China (Shaxian) Snack Tourism and Cultural Festival opened in Shaxian, with a parade featuring the traditional “Bianrou” float.
“Bianrou is like a brick, and mixed noodles are the steel bars that build Shaxian’s skyscrapers.” This saying is popular in Shaxian District, Sanming City, Fujian Province.
Years ago, the residents of Shaxian created a “mobile kitchen” by carrying a load on their shoulders to venture beyond their hometown. They quickly gained nationwide fame with their wallet-friendly strategy: “1 yuan to enter, 2 yuan to feel full, 5 yuan for a good meal,” helping many to become wealthy.
Now, with Shaxian snacks recognized as “national delicacies,” the next step forward has sparked a sense of ambition among the locals. They are not satisfied with the current status and aim to develop Shaxian snacks into a larger and stronger industry while providing platforms for more entrepreneurs to realize their dreams.
The 28th China (Shaxian) Snack Tourism and Cultural Festival and the 2nd Cross-Strait Food Carnival opened in Shaxian and revealed that the Sanming municipal government has been actively planning the construction of a complete industrial chain integrating primary, secondary, and tertiary industries to further promote the development of Shaxian snacks.
As part of this effort, Sanming has initiated comprehensive developments in both software and hardware: establishing Shaxian snack industrial parks, expanding the industry, building a complete industrial chain system, and setting up training and entrepreneurship headquarters to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and support for business operators. This aims not only to promote Shaxian snacks outside but also to deeply integrate them with research and tourism, creating key projects such as snack cultural museums, snack technology museums, and cultural theme parks.
“We are unique in Shaxian in teaching people to make snacks so they can become bosses, not just laborers,” said a staff member from the Shaxian Snack Industrial Development Committee.
Current statistics from Shaxian indicate that over 88,000 snack stores have been established across China. Taking advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative, 229 overseas stores have been opened, covering 79 countries and regions worldwide, establishing themselves as an important window for disseminating Chinese cuisine and culture. Despite having a registered population of just 270,000, Shaxian snacks have created jobs for 300,000 people, transforming traditional livelihoods into a booming industry with an annual turnover exceeding 55 billion yuan.
“A snack has laid the foundation for Shaxian’s development; it is the livelihood and hope for all Shaxian snack practitioners; it symbolizes our duty and mission to preserve and inherit folk culture and will pave the way for rural revitalization,” remarked Wu Ying, Vice President of the China Cooking Association, during the festival, highlighting the significance of developing Shaxian snacks into a major industry for achieving high-quality development.
“Shaxian snacks are the happiness built through hard work.” During the 28th China (Shaxian) Snack Tourism and Cultural Festival, entrepreneur Yan Fahui stated that while Shaxian snacks might appear easy to replicate, the reality is that shop owners typically operate year-round with little time off, emphasizing the necessity of diligence for success.
The regional context of “eight mountains, one river, and one part of land” has fostered a local tradition of striving to succeed.
Many Shaxian people started leaving their hometowns in the late 1980s, carrying makeshift stalls made of bamboo and plastic sheets and cooking with simple coal stoves. As they ventured into unfamiliar cities, their horizons expanded, leading to a shift in their entrepreneurial ideas from street vending to establishing stores, which significantly increased their income.
Luo Chanyu, who has run a Shaxian snack business for 11 years, returned to Shaxian over a decade ago at her elderly mother’s urging and opened a Tofu Ball shop, blending her mother’s traditional skills with innovative methods. From her great-grandfather’s era, she has reached the fourth generation in the tofu ball business, now recognized as a “heir of Shaxian snack-making skills.”
With a history spanning over 1,600 years, Shaxian snacks emerged from the melding of dietary cultures of Han and Minyue ancestors during migration, earning recognition as a “living fossil” of traditional Chinese cuisine. Boasting a range of over 240 products from four major series—rice, flour, beans, and meat—Shaxian cuisine includes 39 items designated as “famous snacks of China” and 63 as “famous snacks of Fujian.” In 2021, the craft of making Shaxian snacks was included in the national list of intangible cultural heritage representative items.
Shaxian holds the titles of “Hometown of Chinese Snacks” and “Famous Snack Culture City.” Among the 42 practitioners of Shaxian snack-making, they continue to innovate and preserve their culinary arts, each developing their own unique flavors.
While Shaxian snack stores nationwide may not have as wide a variety, in Shaxian itself, over 200 different kinds are available, according to Xu Hao, Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the Jiangsu Provincial Catering Industry Association. “When it comes to the top 10 brands nationwide, Shaxian snacks have consistently held the top position in both scale and quantity, epitomizing affordability to the general public.”
On November 23, 2024, Shaxian snacks shone once again in Taiwan during the “Cross-Strait Snack Carnival” in Taipei’s Ximen District, where locals produced 65,000 classic snacks that were enjoyed by over 40,000 attendees.
This year’s China (Shaxian) Snack Tourism and Cultural Festival, themed “Gourmet Exchange Across the Straits; Fragrant Gathering in Shaxian,” attracted tourists nationwide and has been held annually since 1997, now marking its 28th edition. The festival features 27 activities across three categories—cultural and sports, food, and government affairs—to promote the transformation and upgrading of the snack industry and invigorate the economic development of Shaxian District, facilitating integration across the straits.
Zhang Xin, Director of the Shaxian Snack Industrial Development Committee, noted that as culinary cultural exchanges deepen between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Shaxian snacks serve as a bridge for communication. Since 2024, more than 1,000 Taiwanese compatriots have participated in Shaxian’s cross-strait snack cultural exchange activities. Presently, around ten Shaxian snack stores have been opened in Taipei, Yilan, Taichung, and New Taipei.
From humble street stalls to today’s more than 88,000 stores nationwide, with an annual turnover exceeding 55 billion yuan, Shaxian snacks have established a signature industry that significantly contributes to wealth generation and local strength.
In building a robust snack industry and a complete industrial chain system, Shaxian’s crystal dumplings, made primarily with vermicelli and minced meat, have gained popularity among both domestic and international tourists. “Once I return home, I hope to still taste this wonderful flavor,” expressed a visitor at the festival.
Thanks to quick-freezing technology, Shaxian crystal dumplings are now mass-produced and delivered directly to stores through cold chain logistics.
To expand the snack industry and build a complete industrial chain, Shaxian has created a 1,600-acre Shaxian Snack Tertiary Industry Integration Demonstration Park, introducing 26 related enterprises, developing 39 kinds of convenience foods, and adding 30 production lines for pre-packaged Shaxian snacks, with some products already being exported to countries like the UK, France, and Japan.
As evidenced by the initial effects of the park’s concentrated industries, the town is developing rapidly. In response to the raw material requirements of Shaxian snacks, approximately 60,000 acres for condiment cultivation and 30,000 acres for forest undergrowth farming have been established, yielding an annual output value of over 500 million yuan. By following a development path emphasizing secondary industry alongside primary and tertiary industries, Shaxian snacks are transitioning towards standardization, chain operation, industrialization, internationalization, and digitization.
The interaction between traditional craftsmanship and modern technology allows Shaxian snacks to break the limitations of time and space while simultaneously targeting the burgeoning cultural tourism industry. The promotional video “Come to Fujian to Enjoy Food” for Shaxian snacks went viral online in 2022, reaching over 257 million viewers, linking snack culture to larger industries and striving to attract visitors.
According to Peng Jian, a professor and Deputy Dean at the Graduate School of Central University for Nationalities, the appeal of a tourist destination is significantly enhanced by unique and delectable local cuisine. He suggests leveraging the popularity of Shaxian snacks to boost local tourism traffic.
“I believe Shaxian’s future development relies greatly on Shaxian snacks,” Peng stated, emphasizing the importance of enhancing the quality of snack shops’ offerings so that visitors feel their trip to Shaxian was worthwhile.
Zhou Pengbang, an industry advisor for the China Culinary Exchange Association, echoed the sentiment that the connection between culinary exploration and tourism is substantial. “Small eats resonate with many people, serving as a medium for memory and emotional connections,” he noted, pointing to instances such as the recent popularity of dishes like Zibo barbecue or Tianshui spicy hotpot that have transformed their cities into trending tourist destinations.
Shaxian has been proactive, developing key projects including folk culture museums, technology museums, and a cultural theme park around Shaxian snacks, as well as the nationally recognized AAA tourist site “Shaxian Snack First Village” in Yubang Village. The region also launched 33 cultural and creative products themed around Shaxian snacks. Public data shows that Shaxian attracts over 5 million visitors annually, contributing to an increase in the added value of the tertiary industry surpassing 12 billion yuan.
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