Traditional Noodle-food Craft (Nanxiang Soup-dumpling Making)

The Nanxiang soup-dumpling craft is traced to 1871, when Huang Mingxian is said to have created the dumpling in Nanxiang, Jiading. It entered the fourth national ICH list in 2014 as a "traditional noodle-food craft."

The craft demands unleavened thin skins, exact filling proportions with aspic, and pleats folded by hand—each dumpling showing fine, even creases—together with careful control of the steaming.

The Nanxiang soup dumpling is a hallmark of Shanghai dim sum, its craft embodying the precision of Jiangnan pastry-making and now known well beyond China.

The craft originated around the Guyi Garden in Nanxiang, Jiading, and is carried on around the Yu Garden and City God Temple.