Dongchuan Food Festival

Dongchuan Food Festival kicked off in the Dongchuan Food Street, where local cadres and the public enjoyed 2017 bowls of freshly made Dongchuan noodles, creating a grand scene of “colorful noodle forest, thousand people eating noodles.” In addition, the world’s largest outdoor installation art of “a bowl of noodles” and the world’s largest shaped light box are also on display, both of which are currently applying for Guinness World Records.

At the scene, three huge copper pots were arranged in a row, and the water from Mount Guniushan (Fuzhaishan) was put into the pots to boil. When the lids of the pots were removed, steam poured out, creating a spectacular sight. Each of the three pots weighs 180 kilograms and has a diameter of 1.8 meters, taking nearly 100 hours to make.

There were also 12 noodles hanging high on the food street, which were particularly eye-catching. In addition to traditional noodles, there were also unique rainbow-colored noodles arranged by color. “The orange ones are carrot noodles, the bright yellow ones are pumpkin noodles, the dark yellow ones are buckwheat noodles, the green ones are spinach noodles, the purple ones are red cabbage noodles, and the pink ones are mixed with various fruits and vegetables… These colorful noodles are not only beautiful and delicious but also healthy.” The reporter learned that there are nearly 1,000 different flavors of noodles in Dongchuan, but due to space limitations, only 299 types were displayed on site.

The food festival is based on the “Tongdu Street Poverty Alleviation Entrepreneurship Park” and brings nine different business formats, including restaurants, night markets, local specialty exhibitions, tourist reception, urban exhibitions, e-commerce platforms, flea markets, children’s playgrounds, and mass cultural performances, into the food street area. While creating a distinctive urban block, it also promotes employment and helps accurately alleviate poverty, forming an urban complex business circle with “one street, one park, one market, and one stage”.

The food festival was divided into a dense snack area with a total of 160 stalls and the “Dongchuan Local Specialties Street Food Fair” in the Poverty Alleviation Entrepreneurship Park dining area. Whether in the Poverty Alleviation Entrepreneurship Park dining area or in the flea market agricultural specialties sales area, the entire food street targetedly provided different types of preferential assistance to poor households with filing cards in terms of labor employment, commodity sales, and entrepreneurship learning. Through a combination of support and entrepreneurship learning, poor households can increase their income by earning money from home.

The world’s largest bowl of noodles has made its debut in Dongchuan, and it is expected to set a Guinness World Record.

At the opening ceremony of the Food Festival, a noodle dish with a diameter of 12.2 meters and a height of 12.8 meters, featuring noodles being picked up by chopsticks in a large bowl, also officially unveiled. It is reported that the selection of this “big bowl of noodles” as the cultural representative of Dongchuan has made the city more approachable and unique. This large-scale outdoor installation has become a new landmark of Dongchuan.

According to reports, this bowl of noodles weighs over 70 tons. The idea behind this creation is based on Dongchuan’s 3,000-year history of copper smelting, and the dish uses purple and yellow copper as the main colors. The 24 blocks of noodles in the big bowl symbolize the 24 mining veins with the highest copper grade in Dongchuan’s ancient copper smelting history. The bowl of the big noodle dish is inlaid with 24 pictures, which together compose the panoramic view of the “God’s palette” red land in Dongchuan. Dongchuan Big Bowl Noodles will become the world’s largest outdoor installation art of noodles and is also likely to be the world’s largest shaped light box, currently applying for Guinness World Records.

At the same time, this big bowl of noodles will become the first self-driving tour reception center in Yunnan Province since the East Dongchuan Stone and Mud Flow Car Race last May 1st.

According to statistics, the number of people entering the first East Dongchuan Food Festival in October last year reached 148,000, while the permanent population of Dongchuan City is only 50,000. The East Dongchuan Food Festival has become a new high point in the development of all-for-one tourism. “Dongchuan’s Food Festival is the best among the surrounding counties and has been set as a sample for promotion.” Pu Jian, Deputy Director of the Trade and Service Department of Kunming Municipal Bureau of Commerce, told reporters that Kunming is planning to successfully build “World Food Capital” within five years and needs each district and county to explore their own characteristics and advantages for differentiated development. The gathering of noodle elites at this festival has pointed out the highlights of Dongchuan as the “Home of Noodles”.

It is reported that three districts and counties in Kunming, including Dongchuan Food Street, have successfully created food streets. The location of Dongchuan’s food street is on a major transportation route, with a particularly concentrated business community and surrounding new buildings, which quickly attracted popularity and buzz. “In the future, each district and county in Kunming will have at least one food street, and a food-themed activity will be held once a week. The fun and delicious food parties like today’s Dongchuan will become a daily routine for Kunming people.”

It is reported that the Dongchuan Food Festival will last from January 21st to January 25th, for a period of five days, with a total of 160 special food booths. This is also a special activity for Dongchuan to welcome the upcoming Chinese New Year and is filled with a strong festive atmosphere.