Dafulin Restaurant

Dafulin Restaurant was founded in 1934 on Jianwu Street in Tianjin's Nanshi quarter, first selling pickles and home-style flatbreads. In 1956 the founder Li Deming led thirty-eight staff to follow the campaign to build the Baotou Steel Works, relocating the whole restaurant to Baotou, where it quickly became one of the busiest old restaurants in the city and a taste woven into generations of local memory.

Dafulin's signature buns won the praise of the whole city for their distinctive flavour and were named among the "Nine Tastes of Baotou" in the Inner Mongolia Flavours campaign, making the brand the most emblematic old name in Baotou dining. It was certified a China Time-Honored Brand in 2000 and named one of Baotou's first "century-old shops" in 2016.

Its buns prize a soft risen skin and a generous, juicy filling, keeping the Tianjin old-dough method while the seasoning is adjusted to north-western tastes, the pleats fine and close, a representative fusion of southern and northern pastry craft in Baotou.

Dafulin is a recognised China Time-Honored Brand and is regarded as a model of inheritance and innovation among Baotou's old names.