The History of Guilin Rice Noodles

Guilin Rice Noodles is a noodle dish extensively consumed in Guilin, a picturesque city in northeast Guangxi province.  It is a street food and family meal features plenty and cheap, tasty, and loaded with delecatable flavors.An essential part of daily life for modern Guilin residents, rice noodles have been a staple of the local diet for thousands of years. As legend has it, the dish was first enjoyed over 2,000 years ago during China’s Qin dynasty (221 BCE), an era in which many of the nation’s basic geographic boundaries and administrative systems were established.

In an effort to unify the country’s various kingdoms, Emperor Qin Shi Huang dispatched thousands of troops from northern China to the southern borderlands of present-day Guangxi. There, the soldiers defended against local warring tribes and constructed the Lingqu Canal, an impressive waterway used to transport supplies within the region and strengthen the frontier. It was in this context that Guilin rice noodles were born.

Accustomed to eating wheat which grew more vigorously in the dry terrain of northern China, the Qin soldiers weren’t big fans of the south’s rice-heavy diet. In order to appease their palates, a local general ordered the army cooks to transform common rice flour into long noodles, which were served in a bowl of medicinal soup flavored with Chinese herbs to cure the soldier’s ailments.

This new dish quickly became popular and, over two-thousand years later, remains so beloved in the region that it’s almost synonymous with the city of Guilin itself. Today, mifen restaurants can be found on just about every corner in Guilin, with some open 24 hours.

Remember, no trip to Guilin is complete without devouring at least a few bowls of rice noodles along the way, so be sure to indulge yourself when traveling.