Luoyang Zhen Bu Tong Water Feast Museum

Cultural heritage

The Luoyang Zhen Bu Tong Water Feast Museum is based at the century-old Zhen Bu Tong restaurant and is devoted to the Luoyang Water Feast. The feast traces to the Tang dynasty and has been handed down for over a thousand years, its technique entering the national ICH list in 2008. The museum sets out the feast's history, the ceremonial structure of its twenty-four courses, its cooking craft and its wares and settings, presenting in full this ancient-capital banquet prized for its soups and served like flowing water — a dedicated window onto Heluo food culture and the flavor of the Tang.

Visiting: Inside, visitors can follow the displays through a thousand years of the feast's evolution from Tang palace to people's table, seeing the ceremonial order of the courses and their wares, and grasping the knife and broth skills behind signature dishes such as peony yan cai; amid artifacts, texts and scenes, one feels the ancient-capital spirit and Heluo flavor distilled into a single banquet.