Luoyang Water Feast

The Luoyang Water Feast is a complete twenty-four-course banquet unique to the city, arranged as cold openers, anchoring dishes, eight mains and closing courses, mixing hot and cold, meat and vegetable. Two things define it: a reliance on soups and broths, and a rhythm of one dish replacing another in unbroken succession — like flowing water, hence the name.

The feast dates to the Tang dynasty and, by tradition, passed between palace and people over more than a thousand years, its banquet form reaching back to the high-Tang table. Grown in Luoyang, capital of thirteen dynasties, it is a complete dining etiquette in which the city distilled its festivals and the courtesy of hosting guests.

The feast is a sit-down affair: guests gather round, dishes arrive in order and are cleared as the next comes, each savored hot for its fresh, mellow broth. One may take the whole sequence for its ceremonial rhythm, or order the signature peony yan cai alone for a taste of it.

The magic is in the word 'water' and its flowing rhythm — fresh, mellow broths alternating hot and cool. Working through the full sequence feels like savoring the spirit of the Tang, and it is one of the very few whole-banquet techniques inscribed as national heritage.