Xuanbao Small Wontons 宣堡小馄饨
Xuanbao Small Wontons is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Xuanbao Small Wontons (宣堡小馄饨) are tiny hand-wrapped wontons in a soy-based soup from Xuanbao (宣堡), a town in Taixing (泰兴) in the Taizhou (泰州) area of Jiangsu. Their wrapper is rolled so thin that, as experienced makers put it, you can read a newspaper through it and it catches fire when lit. In 2023 the Xuanbao small wonton making technique (宣堡小馄饨制作技艺) entered the fifth batch of Jiangsu's provincial intangible cultural heritage list.
How it is made
Everything is done by hand: mixing the filling, rolling the wrappers, wrapping, making the soup and cooking. The Yangtse Evening Post singles out rolling the wrapper as especially demanding. Good flour is kneaded thoroughly with water, and the cook scatters dry flour while rolling so the sheet stretches very thin without sticking. The Taizhou municipal publicity department describes the finished wrapper as thin as xuan paper (宣纸) and almost transparent.
Wrapping needs a light but firm touch: press too hard and the skin tears, too softly and the wonton will not hold shut. Ma Zhenya (马振亚), who has run a wonton shop in Xuanbao since 1992, required every wonton to look like a little bubble when his daughter learned the craft. The soup base is made by blending home-made soy sauce in set proportions and simmering it.
Flavour and texture
Cooked, the wontons are plump and round and float in the bowl; the heritage description compares their shape to whitebait (银鱼). The soy-based soup is rich and sweet. The Ma family's Feima (飞马) wontons started with a fresh pork filling alone and have since added shrimp, crab roe and even knife fish (刀鱼) versions.
Where it comes from
Xinghua (兴化) writer Liu Xianghe (刘香河) credits the wonton's reputation to its founder, known as Zhao Guozi (赵锅子), whose light, small wontons drew crowds. The second-generation master, Tian Baolin (田宝林), opened branches in several cities and took on more than 200 apprentices from inside and outside Jiangsu.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.
Image credits & notes (1)
- Reference photo of a similar dish · 同类菜品参考照片A similar preparation is pictured; the local version may differ. 同类菜品参考照片，当地做法可能不同。Photo: Dennis Wong from Hong Kong, Hong Kong · CC BY 2.0Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited. Thumbnails may show a cropped view.
