Gucheng Dragon-and-Phoenix Tribute Noodles 故城龙凤贡面
Gucheng Dragon-and-Phoenix Tribute Noodles is featured among the local specialties of Hebei.
Gucheng Dragon-and-Phoenix Tribute Noodles (故城龙凤贡面) are hand-pulled dried noodles from Gucheng County (故城县) in Hengshui (衡水), Hebei, made mainly in Gucheng town (故城镇). The name joins two strands: a round, hollow "dragon-whisker" noodle and a flat, paper-thin "phoenix-tail" noodle.
Where it comes from
Gucheng County borders Dezhou (德州) in Shandong and lies on the west bank of the old canal; the Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal runs through the county for more than 75 kilometres. According to China News Service (中国新闻网), the noodles were first made by the Qi (齐) family of Gucheng town in the Ming dynasty, about 500 years ago. The Gucheng county gazetteer names the Qifuyuan (齐福源) noodle workshop, run by Qi Jixiu (齐纪修), as the best-known maker: merchants shipped its noodles along the canal to the capital, where they entered the imperial court.
The round strand is called dragon-whisker tribute noodles (龙须贡面) because it is even, fine and long like a dragon's whiskers and was once sent to the court as tribute. The flat, straight strand, thin as paper, is phoenix-tail noodles (凤尾面). Together the two give the name dragon-and-phoenix noodles. In June 2008 the Hebei provincial culture department named Diao Jianmin (刁建民), who runs a noodle factory in Zhengkou town (郑口镇), the representative inheritor of the craft, which is on Hebei's provincial intangible cultural heritage list.
How it is made
Flour, egg white, salt and water are mixed in set proportions and the dough is left to rest in a basin. It is formed into a thick rope, cut into strips on a board and brushed evenly with sesame oil, then coiled into thinner ropes. These are hung on bamboo sticks and pulled out, rested again in a trough, and drawn into fine strands on racks. The process has more than 20 traditional steps, and all of them except the mixing are done by hand. Makers start mixing at 3 a.m., with the dough reaching the final pulling stage at about 11 a.m.
The timing is set so that the noodles dry in daylight. Drying takes 12 hours and must be natural, not by wind or heat: the strand dries from the outside inwards, which leaves a gap at the centre and makes the noodle hollow. The dough is mixed with cold water even in winter. The dried noodles are cut into short lengths, weighed and packed.
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Fucheng Noodles with Rich Gravy 阜城全卤面 →
Both are county noodle specialities of Hengshui: Gucheng's are Ming-era dried noodles pulled by hand and dried until the round strand turns hollow, while Fucheng's are a 1985 hand-rolled noodle served under a vegetable-and-sesame gravy.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.