Fenglin Ge

Fenglin Ge is one of Datong's oldest established restaurants, said to have been founded in the Ming Zhengde era (around 1518) under the earlier name 'Jiusheng Lou.' Folklore ties it to the Zhengde emperor's incognito visit to Datong and the 'playful dragon and phoenix' legend, after which it took the name Fenglin Ge. It stands as a signature emblem of Datong's culinary culture.

The house is best known for its 'hundred-flower shaomai.' By tradition, when the Empress Dowager Cixi passed through Datong on her westward flight in the late Qing, the kitchen presented her with nine baskets of shaomai filled with chicken, duck, fish, crab, beef, mutton and pork, each pleated into the shape of peony, peony-flower and chrysanthemum blooms. The dish has been celebrated ever since as Datong's showpiece for honoring guests.

Hundred-flower shaomai turns on a paper-thin, lacy wrapper rolled with a frilled lotus-leaf edge; filled with assorted stuffings and pinched into layered petals, the parcels open like blossoms once steamed. Today 'Datong hundred-flower shaomai' is listed as a Datong municipal-level intangible cultural heritage item.

Fenglin Ge is a widely recognized old local establishment, but it does not appear on the Ministry of Commerce 'China Time-Honored Brand' registry; it is therefore noted here as a famous local house rather than a confirmed registered time-honored brand.