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Explainer | Zhaoqing rules when it comes to food, with its Guozheng rice dumpling a household name in Greater Bay Area
- Zhaoqing has been promoting its agricultural products to improve the livelihood of 89,000 relatively poor people
- The city recorded a 7 per cent increase in agricultural output in the first quarter, and 17 per cent in fisheries production despite the pandemic
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Zhaoqing may not be widely known for its heavy industries or financial firms, but some of its farm and food products are household names in China’s southern Guangdong province, home to nine of the 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area.
Even amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the city’s farm output rose 7 per cent year on year in the first quarter to 3.77 billion yuan (US$555 million), while revenues from its fisheries sector jumped 17 per cent to 2.36 billion yuan, according to the latest government data.
Some 89,000 people in the city of nearly 4.2 million are relatively poor, according to the Zhaoqing government. In a bid to improve their income and raise their standard of living, the government is actively promoting its food products on e-commerce channels and trade fairs.
Below are five farm, fish and food items Zhaoqing is known for.
1. Zhaoqing Guozheng
The glutinous rice dumpling, or Guozheng as the locals call it, is by far the most popular food. The fillings include 10 ingredients such as pork, dried shrimp, mushroom, dried oyster and salted egg. It is wrapped in plant leaves unique to Zhaoqing in the shape of a pillow or pyramid and boiled for at least eight hours until the ingredients form an integral body.
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