The annual traditional Chinese festival Duanwujie (Dragon Boat Festival) falls on June 19 this year. Traditionally, Chinese people make zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings) and eat them at home to celebrate this festival. Yet for office workers, tight work schedules makes it almost impossible to make zongzi themselves. So here are some recommended places to buy zongzi in Beijing and Shanghai.

 

 

Zongzi is a kind of rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves to form a pyramid. The stuffing is mostly made of glutinous rice and complemented with Chinese dates, red beans, and salty meats. Generally speaking, zongzi is divided into two categories, salty zongzi which is popular in South China, and the sweet ones in North China.

 

Zongzi brands in Beijing

 

Daoxiangcun

 

A snack chain store in Beiing, Daoxiangcun features a wide selection of zongzi, both sweet and salty ones, including those with Chinese dates, zongzi Chinese hamzongzi, or egg yolkzongzi.

 

Daoxiangcun also has wugu zong, which is stuffed with traditional Chinese grains including broomcorn grains and corn. There's also sweet bamboo tube Babao Zong, and the wrapping is the hollow bamboo tube instead of reed leaves.

 

Location 1: No. 117 Dongzhimen Waidajie, Chaoyang District

Tel: 010-64033443

 

Location 2: No. 60 Jiaoda Donglu, Haidian District

Tel: 010-62262128

 

Dasanyuan

 

Apart from ordinary salty and sweet zongzi, Dasanyuan also has purple glutinous rice zongzi, which stickier than ordinary glutinous rice zongzis.

 

Besides, Dasanyuan also features some zongzi stuffed with expensive seafood ingredients. And their prices are also quite high. A package containing about five such zongzi is 128 yuan.

 

Location 1: No.50 Jingshan Xijie, Dongcheng District

Tel: 010-64013920

 

Location 2: No. Jia 19, Xisanhuan Zhonglu, Haidian District

Tel: 010-63941370

 

Holilai

 

Holilai focuses on the sales of desserts and it has many chain stores in Beijing. It sells small zongzi, mainly sweet ones and priced at 6 yuan each. Holilai also has zongzi packages, the small ones contain 6 zongzi priced at 39 yuan, and big packages containing 9 zongzis at 58 yuan.

 

Location 1: Building No.15, Area No.2, Fangchengyuan, Fengtai District

Tel: 010-67647183

 

Location 2: 1/F, Peony Hotel, No. 31 Huangyuan Donglu, Haidian District

Tel: 010-62042047

 

Zongzi brands in Shanghai

 

A Po Zong (zongzi made by Grandma)

 

Chinese people believe that festivals should be celebrated together with their families, yet not all everyone can make it. For those who feel homesick, they may smell something similar to their mother's zongzi from A Po Zong, which are completely handmade as well as soft and sticky.

 

Two flavors are recommended: the salty yolk and meat zongzi, which is stuffed with tender pork and preserved egg yolk. The other is the sweet corn. and honey Chinese date zongzi, which is stuffed with fresh corn and a big sweet sticky Chinese date.

 

Shipin Yidian

Location: No. 720, Nanjing Donglu, Huangpu District, Shanghai

Tel: 021-63517662

 

Mini Zongzi

 

Girls often find typical zongzi are too big and one is more than enough to fill their entire stomach. For fear of putting on too much weight, most young women prefer mini zongzi, whose size is only one third of normal zongzi.

 

Though small in size, mini zongzi boast many flavors. The best mini zongzi is the sweet bean paste zongzione. Babao Zong is also worth a try, filled with various nuts grains, like green bean, chestnut, and cashew.

 

Shipin Yidian

Location: No. 720, Nanjing Donglu, Huangpu District

Tel: 021-63517662

 

Vegetarian Zongzi

 

Vegetarian Zongzi is the first choice for many senior citizens. Vegetarian restaurant Gongdelin makes vegetarian zongzi each year. They are totally free of animal fat and this puts less pressure on the digestive system, which is suitable for those having a weak stomach.

 

The fragrant vegetarian meat and chestnut zongzi, whose meat is made out of soybean fiber comes highly recommended as well as luohanzong, a combination of many healthy foods like seaweed, chestnut, fungus and lotus plumule. Also available is a new kind of zongzi made out of purple glutinous rice, which tastes stickier than ordinary glutinous rice.

 

Gongdelin Counters

Location 1: No.97, Wukanglu, Xuhui District

Tel: 021-64718909

 

Location 2: No. 445, Nanjing Xilu, Jing'an District

Tel: 021-63270218

 

Wufangzhai: the most classic

 

Nicknamed as the number one zongzi brand in Jiangnan, south of the Yangtze River, Wufangzhai has an 80-year history featuring various meat zongzi. The meat Wufangzhai uses zongziis striped meat, the fat part of which usually melts into the glutinous rice when stewed in a pot. This makes the glutinous rice even more tasty.

 

This year Wufangzhai features many zongzi packages which includes various zongzi, eggs and special Wufangzhai soup.

 

Shanghai

Location: No. 136, Sichuan Zhonglu, Huangpu District

Tel: 021-63210018/632166472

 

Background: Duanwujie, also called Dragon Boat Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month according to the lunar calendar. It is celebrated to commemorate the patriotic poet Qu Yuan who lived in the Warring States Period (475-221BC). There are two major ways to celebrate -- eating zongzi and holding dragon boat races.

 

(China Daily June 18, 2007)