Recently, more than 60 Hakka dishes have been searched and sorted by rural officials and food lovers in Qiaotou Firewood Shop in Qiaotou township of Guidong county. The compilation of the first “Hakka Cuisine Atlas” in the township is about to be completed.

An industrial transformation featuring Hakka cuisine is flourishing on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. The township government has launched seven series of food, including Hakka snacks and specialty drinks, with tea leaves, bamboo leaves and Nan bamboo as the core auxiliary materials.

In recent years, the township government has deeply explored local characteristic resources to build an industrial pattern of spring tea, summer bamboo leaves, autumn bamboo and winter bamboo shoots.

At present, the township has 32,000 mu (about 21,333.33 hectares) of high-quality tea gardens, 12,000 mu (800 hectares) of bamboo leaves bases, and 20,000 mu (about 1,333.33 hectares) of bamboo forests.

There are over 50 tea enterprises and tea processing factories, 10 processing factories for bamboo leaves, 4 processing factories for bamboo shoots, two processing factories for bamboo charcoals, which have provided job opportunities for over 4,000 people.

With rich characteristic agricultural products for ingredients, the township government has continued to make breakthroughs in the integration of agriculture and tourism, as well as cultural tourism integration.

Through in-depth research, it was found that the local people are hardworking and hospitable, and every family is skilled in cooking Hakka cuisine, forming a unique food social culture.

On every sixth and ninth day of the Chinese lunar months, the “market day” is a grand occasion even more popular than ever before. Over 10 restaurants are crowded with villagers who exchange agricultural affairs and complete transactions of agricultural products during meals.

The township government has implemented a three-year action plan for building a town of gourmet food, and held two consecutive Hakka food culture festivals. The brand of “traveling in Guidong county, eating in Qiaotou township” has attracted 100,000 tourists from Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, driving the sales of agricultural products worth 13.8 million yuan.

With the support of local governments, a villager from Shangyi village, who returned to his hometown to start a business, set up Qiaoqing agricultural product processing factory, and developed tea-flavored zongzi, which became a popular product for the combination of traditional Hakka zongzi with local black tea.

In 2024, the sales of the tea-flavored zongzi exceeded 230,000, driving more than 50 “Qiaoqing” brand Hakka specialties to achieve an annual sales of over 6.8 million yuan.

Data showed that in 2024, the revenue of the catering industry in the township increased by 52% year on year.

Currently, the township is applying for the inscription of “Changminggan” (rice paste), a century-old Hakka snack, on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage The cultivation plan for 70 rural food chefs has been fully launched. The “Hakka Flavors in Qiaotou Township”short video series are coming soon on new media platforms.

The township government is striving to include the food industry in the key projects of Hunan-Jiangxi Border Region Cooperation Demonstration Zone. It plans to build 20 star-rated agritainments in three years, launch a table of Hakka dishes for tourists and develop new business formats like food study tour to promote the food industry to benefit more people.

Chinese source: rednet