Discover Wuzhong: Food Culture, Shawo Aged Vinegar and Hotels

If you’re looking for a hotel in Wuzhong, three themes can shape your trip planning: culinary diversity, traditional craftsmanship and historic temple culture. Guangyao Food Street combines gastronomy with regional cultural offerings. At the Qiangjia Old Vinegar Cultural Wellness Garden, Shawo aged vinegar and its production take centre stage; the ancient Shifosi Temple is associated with two stone Buddha figures. These distinct highlights can help you choose what to explore based on your own interests.

Food and culture at Guangyao Food Street

Located in Litong District of Wuzhong City, Guangyao Food Street is a tourist leisure street. Its offerings include specialty restaurants, regional specialities, cultural and tourism products, and exhibitions of intangible cultural heritage. The street itself is 500 metres long from east to west. Alongside its food, its cultural focus is another defining feature.

In the associated township of Wuzhong, it has 38 branded restaurants, eleven brands described as well-known Chinese snack or restaurant businesses, and more than 300 types of food. The food street is also listed as having more than 90 specialty restaurants and intangible cultural heritage brand shops. These figures offer insight into different aspects of its offerings: the variety of food as well as the connection to local specialities and cultural heritage. The food selection is a key draw for culinary enthusiasts, while exhibitions and cultural heritage shops add a cultural dimension.

Events are also part of its profile. The food street has held five editions of a festival of ethnic specialities and snacks. In 2023, it was included in the first group of night-time cultural and tourism consumption areas in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The festival and the designation offer different insights into the street’s events and cultural connections.

Shawo aged vinegar: craftsmanship and history

In the associated township of Wuzhong, the Qiangjia Old Vinegar Cultural Wellness Garden is an industrial tourism site showcasing the history and development of local Shawo aged vinegar. Visitors can take part in some stages of vinegar production and taste aged vinegar. The five traditional Shawo vinegar-making techniques—cooking, fermenting, smoking, straining and storing—date back to the late Qing period and are designated as intangible cultural heritage. This combines insights into individual production stages with the historical context of the craft.

In the wider Wuzhong City travel area, a page from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism also lists tastings, foot baths and steam treatments at the vinegar wellness experience site in the Qiangjia Garden. These listed experiences extend the theme from production to other vinegar-related applications.

Shifosi and the stone Buddha figures

The ancient Shifosi Temple in Litong District of Wuzhong City houses two surviving stone Buddha figures. This historic landmark differs from the intangible heritage of the Shawo techniques: at Shifosi, the focus is on surviving stone images, while the vinegar story centres on inherited methods. Together, these cultural and historical themes range from traditional craftsmanship to stone Buddha figures.

Discover more destinations: Guyuan, Zhongwei, Yinchuan, Shizuishan.

For the main travel overview: Ningxia.