Within the broader Wuzhong Shi area, Guangyao Food Street showcases culinary variety, while the Qiangjia Old Vinegar Cultural Wellness Garden focuses on Shawo Old Vinegar. The wider travel region also offers a distinct cultural highlight: Shifosi Ancient Temple in Litong District. These three themes appeal to different interests: a wide range of food, a traditional production process and preserved stone Buddha figures.

Guangyao Food Street: Food and Cultural Heritage

Guangyao Food Street in Litong District of Wuzhong Shi is a tourist promenade featuring specialty restaurants, regional specialties, cultural and tourism products, and exhibitions on intangible cultural heritage. Within the broader Wuzhong Shi area, it has 38 branded restaurants, eleven brands counted among China’s well-known snack or restaurant businesses, and more than 300 types of food. It also includes more than 90 specialty food shops and shops featuring intangible cultural heritage brands. The range extends from dishes to regional products and cultural offerings, making it a good choice if you’d like to explore food and intangible cultural heritage together.

The inner street is 500 meters long and runs east to west. Its event history includes five editions of a festival celebrating ethnic specialties and snacks. In 2023, Guangyao Food Street was included in the first group of cultural and tourism consumption areas for night-time visits in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The street’s length, festival history and place in night-time cultural tourism offer different perspectives on this destination.

Shawo Old Vinegar: Production and History

As an industrial tourism destination, the Qiangjia Old Vinegar Cultural Wellness Garden presents the history and development of local Shawo Old Vinegar. Visitors can take part in some stages of vinegar production and taste aged vinegar. The experience connects individual production steps with the finished product.

The five traditional techniques used to make Shawo Old Vinegar are cooking, fermentation, smoking, straining and aging. They date back to the late Qing period and are designated intangible cultural heritage. Visitors interested in production knowledge can focus on these techniques; those mainly interested in the culinary aspect can sample the aged vinegar.

In the wider travel region, the vinegar wellness experience center at the Qiangjia Old Vinegar Cultural Wellness Garden offers tastings, foot baths and steam treatments. This broadens the focus from production to wellness experiences involving vinegar. Check before visiting to confirm whether these experiences are currently available.

Another Cultural Highlight in Litong District

Shifosi Ancient Temple is located in Litong District, within the wider travel region. Two stone Buddha figures have been preserved there. Shifosi is clearly distinct from the Qiangjia Garden: the temple centers on its preserved figures, while the garden focuses on the history of a regional production process.

If you’re mainly looking for culinary variety, Guangyao Food Street—with more than 300 types of food—is a good fit. If you’re more interested in the history and processing of a single product, Shawo Old Vinegar offers a closer look at five traditional techniques and a tasting.

Discover more destinations: Shizuishan, Guyuan, Yinchuan, Zhongwei

Go to the overall travel guide: Ningxia.