Jiayuguan Grilled Meat Technique

The Jiayuguan grilled meat technique reaches back to the Eastern Han, more than seventeen hundred years ago. Painted bricks in tomb No. 6 of the Xincheng Wei-Jin tombs vividly depict servants grilling lamb skewers and entertaining guests, proving the craft already mature here by the Wei-Jin period and earning it the name of a living fossil of Hexi food culture. It was inscribed on the fifth Gansu provincial ICH list in December 2024.

The craft uses Gobi-grazed lamb and turns on cutting, skewering, charcoal heat and the order in which cumin and chilli are applied; the master judges the turning rhythm by eye and hand so the outside crisps while the juices lock inside, a hand skill balancing knife, fire and seasoning.

Carrying more than seventeen centuries of Hexi food memory, the craft is an important window onto the evolution of northwest pastoral and dietary culture, and a leading emblem of cultural-tourism fusion today.

The historical images behind the craft can be seen on the painted bricks of the Jiayuguan Xincheng Wei-Jin mural tombs.