Yongheyuan

Its forerunner was the Qingxinju teahouse opened in 1901 on Qiwang Street by the Confucius Temple; later moved and renamed Snow Garden, it was bought in 1939 by Bian Yongsheng and renamed Yongheyuan, meaning 'harmony brings prosperity'.

With a master pastry chef at the helm, the house turned out more than twenty kinds of flaky cakes, golden and shaped like crab shells — hence the name 'crab-shell yellow' — among the signatures of Qinhuai snacking.

Its dough is laid up with a distinctive high-fat 'four-sided' lamination that yields clearly defined, crisp and fragrant layers, a pastry technique listed as Jiangsu provincial intangible heritage.

Recognised as a first-batch China Time-Honoured Brand by MOFCOM in 2006.