Ox Street's food stores attract long lines
At 7:30 am, Ox Street, known in Chinese as Niujie Street, in downtown Beijing was bustling with people rushing to work and shop.
On the east side of the street, two long lines formed outside a food store 30 minutes before it opened, while on the west side, more people waited patiently for other food shops to begin business.
These scenes took place on Feb 1, just 10 days before Lunar New Year's Eve, which this year falls on Thursday.
People living in the Chinese capital have a wide range of options when it comes to buying food for the Spring Festival holiday.
However, countless shoppers always head to Ox Street, which is located in Xicheng district about 5 kilometers southwest of Tian'anmen Square.
The street is home to the city's largest population of the traditionally Muslim Hui ethnic group.
That morning, Jiang Haoming, 30, waited in line for two hours to buy snacks and beef.
For the first time, Jiang will not return to his hometown of Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, to celebrate Spring Festival with his family. Instead, he will spend the week-long holiday in Beijing, as due to the pandemic, people have been encouraged to avoid unnecessary travel during the vacation.
"I often come to Ox Street to buy food because of the high-quality beef and mutton as well as the delicious snacks," said Jiang, who works for an online education institution and lives in the Maliandao area, about a 12-minute drive from Ox Street.
"I buy a lot of food－including snacks and drink－online, but I always want to come to this street because I enjoy seeing the snacks on offer and other food, such as steamed stuffed buns, beef pancakes and noodles with mutton soup, which taste best when they are hot.
"Although I am not going to Nanjing, I will have dinner with friends on Lunar New Year's Eve. Like me, they have decided to stay in Beijing during the holiday. We will share tasty food together and I don't think I'll be bored or lonely.
"My mother sent me some food from my hometown and I have started to prepare for the holiday by cleaning my house and buying food. After all, it's Spring Festival, one of the most important traditional occasions in China."
Unlike Jiang, Sha Zhigang, a member of the Hui ethnic group, was born and grew up in the area around Ox Street.
Sha, now in his 60s, visits small restaurants in the street for breakfast after taking his 7-year-old grandson to a primary school. He later shops for lunch and dinner at a food market in the area.
He said he waited about 40 minutes to buy one of his favorite snacks, wandouhuang (cake made from pea paste).
"Most of my family live in Ox Street, and we don't want to move because it's very convenient to buy food here. Before Spring Festival, we usually buy beef and mutton to make dumplings or hotpot during the holiday," Sha said.
He added that during Lantern Festival, which this year falls on Feb 26, his family will buy yuanxiao, a ball-shaped dessert made from glutinous rice, which comes in different flavors, such as chocolate, sesame and red bean paste.
"More people will be coming to Ox Street to buy yuanxiao, so we will get up early to join the line," Sha said, adding that his grandson loves chocolate-flavored variety.
Steamed buns
Ma Zhihong, who sells steamed stuffed buns at Hongji, a food store in Ox Street, said: "These lines of food shoppers are here every day. People from around the city come to buy beef, mutton and snacks, and many of the food stores have featured in television programs, which has attracted more people, such as young tourists."
Born in Ox Street, Ma, 54, has worked for Hongji for more than 10 years. The store sells three kinds of steamed stuffed buns－beef, mutton and vegetable. It is estimated to sell 2,000 buns every day, and more during weekends and holidays.
Ma said that early last year, when the coronavirus outbreak emerged, the lines of customers outside food stores disappeared as people stayed home.
"Thanks to the country's efforts to bring the pandemic under control, things are back to normal now, although everyone wears a face mask," she said.
Hongji, also known as Hongji Snack, is one of Ox Street's best-known food stores, winning many admirers for its homemade offerings such as glutinous rice cake, fried beef and mutton. It also serves breakfast, including deep-fried dough sticks and douzhi, a traditional Beijing fermented drink made from ground beans.
The manager of Hongji Snack, Hong Yuchun, said the brand dates to 1991, when it only sold three types of snacks. Now, it sells more than 50.
"We have many old customers living in the neighborhood who enjoy traditional food. New customers who buy food here are attracted by Ox Street's reputation," Hong said.
Her parents started selling homemade food, but their first store in the street was extremely small, with only one window for customers to place orders.
Hong said that although many young people order food digitally, she operates without any advertising or online business.
"Customers will return to us as long as flavor and quality are guaranteed and prices are reasonable," she said.
Hong added that nearly every food store and restaurant in the Ox Street area started as family businesses, which have been passed on from one generation to the next.
The area's time-honored food brands include Yueshengzhai, founded by Ma Qingrui in 1775, which is known for its mutton products, and Nai Lao Wei (Cheese Wei), founded by Wei Hongchen during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Tourists visit Ox Street to get a glimpse of the old city and to taste authentic Beijing snacks and Muslim food.
One of its best-known restaurants is Jubaoyuan, which does a roaring trade in hotpot and snacks. Customers are offered seats outside the two-floor eatery to wait for tables, and it remains open until 10 pm to cater to a constant stream of diners.
Founded in 1937, the Jubaoyuan brand started by selling fresh beef and mutton. In 1993, Ma Gang, a member of the Hui ethnic group, founded eponymous restaurants, which 10 years later became known for their signature product－hotpot.
Ma, who lives in Ox Street, said: "We go to the slaughterhouse daily to buy fresh meat to sell the same day. Customers come to the restaurants to taste not only fresh mutton and beef, but also for our hotspot sauce, grilled mutton kebabs and sesame seed baked cakes."
There are now nine Jubaoyuan branch restaurants in different areas of Beijing, and Ma said many of their tables have been booked for the Spring Festival holiday.
In addition to its restaurants and food stores, the area is known for the Ox Street Mosque, built in 996 during the Liao Dynasty (916-1125), and for its hutongs (alleyways) and siheyuan (courtyards).
A supermarket selling halal food, where customers can buy a range of snacks from well-known brands, is located next to the Jubaoyuan restaurant.
Wang Yaxiang, who sells snacks at the supermarket, said, "Snack boxes are among the favorite holiday gifts for the older generation in Beijing, and many people are still buying them."
These square paper boxes contain a range of sweet delights, such as cream cake, hawthorn cake and jujube paste cake.
Wang said: "I noticed some young customers using their phones to record the process of packing the snack boxes. They shared the footage online. For the younger generation, this is a new and interesting experience."
Due to the coronavirus outbreak last year, An Fengqin, who is in her 60s and was born and raised in Ox Street, was unable to have Lunar New Year's Eve dinner with her parents－who still live in the area. Instead, the family members greeted one another online.
This year, she plans to visit the street during the Spring Festival holiday to take care of her parents, who are in their 90s.
"Last year, the Spring Festival holiday was full of sadness because of the bad news about the pandemic. We didn't know what to do other than stay home with our families. This year, we want to start over again to have a happy holiday. Although the pandemic is ongoing, we know how to protect ourselves and our families," An said.
After getting married in 1981, An moved to Jinsong, Chaoyang district, with her husband, where they still live.
Area upgraded
In 1997, roads in the Ox Street area were widened and local residents' living conditions were improved. More than 7,500 families, comprising 260,000 people, benefited from these measures.
According to Ox Street: A Muslim Community's Change in Beijing, a book by folklorist Liang Jingyu, who is also a professor at the School of Ethnology and Sociology at Minzu University of China, it was the largest upgrading project in Beijing in the 1990s.
An's family moved from a large courtyard, which was home to some 20 other families, to a 22-story building. Before the pandemic struck, An visited Ox Street to see her parents, former neighbors and childhood friends.
"I feel at home when I'm in this neighborhood. I have so many memories here and there are numerous choices of delicious food. When we celebrate Spring Festival, it's all about families," she said.
"When I was a child, Spring Festival was what I looked forward to most during the year. My parents bought me and my five siblings new clothes and shoes. They also made us food, such as dumplings, which we didn't have at any other time of the year.
"Unlike young people today, we had less entertainment, but we set off firecrackers in hutongs with friends during Spring Festival. Although life was simple and we were generally poor, we had so much fun."
If you have any problems with this article, please contact us at app@chinadaily.com.cn and we'll immediately get back to you.
