Dongchuan Food Festival

Overview

The 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.” Additionally, 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 currently applying for Guinness World Records.

Spectacular Sights

At the scene, three huge copper pots were arranged in a row, with water from Mount Guniushan (Fuzhaishan) boiling inside them. 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.

Colorful Noodles

Twelve eye-catching noodles hung high over the food street, showcasing both traditional and unique rainbow-colored varieties. The colorful noodles include carrot, pumpkin, buckwheat, spinach, red cabbage, and fruit-vegetable blends. These noodles are not only beautiful and delicious but also healthy. Dongchuan boasts nearly 1,000 different flavors of noodles, but due to space limitations, only 299 types were displayed on site.

Economic and Community Impact

The food festival is based on the “Tongdu Street Poverty Alleviation Entrepreneurship Park” and features 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. This initiative creates a distinctive urban block while promoting employment and accurately alleviating poverty, forming an urban complex business circle with “one street, one park, one market, and one stage.”

The festival is divided into a dense snack area with 160 stalls and the “Dongchuan Local Specialties Street Food Fair” in the Poverty Alleviation Entrepreneurship Park dining area. The food street provides various forms of assistance to poor households, including labor employment, commodity sales, and entrepreneurship learning, helping increase their income through home-based opportunities.

Landmark Installations

The world’s largest bowl of noodles made its debut at the festival, expected to set a Guinness World Record. At the opening ceremony, a noodle dish with a diameter of 12.2 meters and a height of 12.8 meters was unveiled, featuring noodles being picked up by chopsticks in a large bowl. This “big bowl of noodles” symbolizes Dongchuan’s 3,000-year history of copper smelting, using purple and yellow copper as its main colors. The 24 blocks of noodles represent the 24 mining veins with the highest copper grade in Dongchuan’s ancient history. The bowl is inlaid with 24 pictures depicting the panoramic view of the “God’s palette” red land in Dongchuan, making it a new landmark of the city.

Growing Popularity

According to statistics, the first East Dongchuan Food Festival in October last year attracted 148,000 visitors, while Dongchuan City has a permanent population of only 50,000. The festival has become a new high point in the development of all-for-one tourism. Pu Jian, Deputy Director of the Trade and Service Department of Kunming Municipal Bureau of Commerce, noted that Kunming is planning to build a “World Food Capital” within five years, encouraging districts to explore their own characteristics for differentiated development. The gathering of noodle elites at this festival highlights Dongchuan as the “Home of Noodles.”

Future Plans

Three districts and counties in Kunming, including Dongchuan Food Street, have successfully created food streets. Dongchuan’s food street is strategically located on a major transportation route, quickly attracting popularity. Each district in Kunming is expected to have at least one food street, with food-themed activities held weekly. The fun and delicious food parties, like today’s Dongchuan festival, will become a routine for Kunming residents.

Festival Details

The Dongchuan Food Festival will run from January 21st to January 25th, lasting five days with a total of 160 special food booths. This event is a special activity for Dongchuan to welcome the upcoming Chinese New Year, filled with a strong festive atmosphere.