QiBao Old Town – A Local Food Paradise
On the sunny day of October 3, 2018, my friend, my Mom, and I joined the October holiday crowd in the pathways of Qibao Old Town, a lesser known tourist attraction located in the Minhang District of Shanghai. Although it is a far line 9 subway ride from Pudong New Area to Qibao station, the uniqueness of Qibao Old Town makes it worthwhile.
After passing through the gateway into Qibao, we posed in front of the bell tower, a hexagonal, three-story building showcasing classic Chinese architecture with its six-pointed, curved upward, and plated roofs, red Chinese lanterns, and windows decorated with a classic Chinese pattern. Then, we merged with the mob in the main street. Alongside us was an array of shops selling products from Chinese-style apparel and traditional crafts like paper cuttings, wood carvings, tie-dye, and Chinese ceramic art to Westernized, modern clothing, toys, and goodies. A store sold clay figures of characters such as Detective Conan, Stitch, Luffy, and another sold handmade, wooden signs with original messages and designs, products you would more likely expect to find in a place like the famous Tian Zi Fang.
Clay Figurines Photo courtesy of Gracier Dai
Once we reached the end of the street, we crossed the plaza with Qibao Restaurant and some other well-known stores selling local dumplings. Then, we climbed one of the three arched stone footbridges in Qibao Old Town to join the moving sea of people at The Food Street. The highlight of the day was this food street. Weaving through the mass of cheerful, excited people, we kept glancing left and right at the long line of food stalls surrounding us, each displaying enticing local specialties on their glass shelves. There were traditional glutinous rice dumplings with nine different fillings, fried dumplings, rice cakes in twelve different flavors, classic Beijing sugar-coated haws on a stick, with various fruit combination choices, and Shanghai-style mooncakes. There were the famous smelly tofu, simmered pig feet, duck soup with noodles, and lamb chops. Finally, there were the Shanghai fried pancakes, vegetarian rolls, fried red bean pastries, carrot cakes, potato sticks, typical barbecue meat and squid sticks, and fried bananas. For the drinks, there were barrels of Chinese wine, traditional Shanghai yogurt, glass jelly in brown sugar water sprinkled with sesame seeds and peanuts, sugar cane juice, and coconut juice. Every time I strolled through this street, I felt like trying everything, but my stomach could never be large enough.
Glutinous Rice Dumplings Photo courtesy of Gracier Dai
After assessing all the available food options, we turned into a smaller street and entered a cozy store dedicated to selling their self-produced spicy sour rice noodles. As we devoured the tasty, jelly-like noodles drenched in sour and spicy soup, a man regularly called out to passersby “Come come come! Sour and spicy noodles for sale! Come now before the seats are full again!” Every once in a while, he would pour the noodle flour mix through a spoon with eight holes, making the noodles right in front of our eyes. While beating the spoon to drain the flour through the holes to make them into long strands of noodles, the man chanted and danced to the rhythm. It was very entertaining to watch and was undoubtedly a sight found nowhere else.
Qibao Town is indeed a fun place in Shanghai to go to for a half day vacation. Selling cheap local street food, traditional crafts, and modern western goods in classic, Chinese style buildings, the Qibao streets radiate off a unique atmosphere unlike any other. Yiyun Wu (12A) thinks similarly, saying “If you want to immerse yourself in traditional Chinese street food and architecture, Qibao is the place to go. I enjoyed stuffing my face with sweet dumplings, spicy rice noodles, and fried bananas. I visited Qibao during the national day holiday when it was really crowded, so do choose your visit time carefully.”
Featured Image – River cutting through Qibao Old Town Courtesy of Fanghong, a Wikipedia user