A small shop with unique local items from the Province of Yunnan

As a province with many ethnic minorities, Yunnan specialties have distinctly ethnic characteristics. And I had a look at many of them yesterday afternoon, when I found a small Yunan specialties shop inside the East Third Ring.

Cloth hand bags hanging on the walls greeted me as I walked inside. I took a close look, and saw that they were handmade by Yunnan locals. Further inside there were goods on shelves classified into different sections: liquors and fruit juices, Pu’er tea, ethnic foodstuff, etc.

What impressed me most about Yunnan liquor was the packaging. The liquor came in a bamboo tube, and a 500g bottle sold for 55 yuan. Another kind was purple rice liquor came in a thinner bamboo tube. A 250g bottle cost 28 yuan. Even after one finishes the drink, the bamboo tube can still serve as a decoration.

The Pu’er teas there were shaped into cakes and bricks. Among them, a tea brick appealing to me was called ‘Cultural Revolution Brick’ (250 g, 110 yuan). The picture on the white wrapping paper depicts the red guards of that period (1966 - 1976). Also on sale were fermented and unfermented tea cakes.

Dried rice noodle was a popular item in the shop, used for making the famous ‘Cross-bridge Rice Noodles’. Other foods included wild edible mushroom, natural lucid ganoderma, and preserved vegetables. All of them were inexpensive.

What I appreciated

Various local products from Yunnan, inexpensive prices

What customers appreciate

Yunnan specialties, catering to common people