History of Guilin rice noodle
A year ago, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Guilin, a city located in the northeast of China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region famous for its limestone mountains and caves. The renowned Elephant Trunk Hill, for one, has become the symbol of the city itself where hundreds of local tourists flock to see the popular emblem of the city. Legend has it that the Elephant Trunk Hill is the embodiment of an elephant who once lived with the Jade Emperor in heaven; but apart from this legend, there is also a very special aspect about this city that makes tourists from other parts of the world visit this special place and it has everything to do with rice noodles.
They say that if you ask a Guilin local what his favorite food is, he would instantly say it is the Guilin rice noodle. Such a dish so typical of the city is considered their fourth treasure, so much so that if you were to decide to stay in the area for a few months, you might be able to master asking for Guilin rice noodles in the local language.
Guilin rice noodles were first invented in the Qin Dynasty, the dynasty that was said to be responsible for creating the first great Chinese empire. Although the Qin Dynasty lasted for only 15 years, it greatly influenced the next two thousand years of China’s history. As for Guilin’s rice noodles, it is said to have a history of more than 2,200 years.
During the Qin period, some soldiers were said to have been sent to the battlefields to the south in order to integrate China. Unfortunately for the soldiers coming from the north, they were not accustomed to eating rice meals. Hence, in order to resolve the problem, the general in charge found a solution that turned the rice into something delicious – thus the birth of the rice noodle, a traditional Guilin food which is renowned throughout China.
This year, I had the opportunity to further explore this city and delve deeper into its history and cuisine, so much so that even if I didn’t understand a word in a popular show held here in Guilin, on top of it being such a spectacle, it was so easy to understand that the city’s pride somewhat revolves around the food that kept their ancestors alive, enough to tell the
