Pingliang Thick Flatbread 平凉锅盔

How it is made

Jingning bakers use flour milled from good local wheat. Drawing on years of experience, they gauge the ratio of water to flour precisely, then knead, slam and press the dough over and over until it is firm and stretchy. The heart of the craft is a baking method called "three flips and six turns" (三翻六转): the round of dough goes into a purpose-built oven, and the baker controls the heat and timing and turns the bread several times so it cooks evenly. The finished guokui is golden, with a crisp crust, a soft crumb and a strong smell of wheat.

Where it comes from

China Gansu Net cites historical records showing that guokui kept well and was easy to carry, which made it an essential dry ration for travelling merchants and for soldiers on the march; from there it spread into everyday home cooking.

In November 2024 the Gansu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism (甘肃省文化和旅游厅) put the Jingning guokui making technique (静宁锅盔制作技艺), submitted by Jingning County, on its proposed fifth list of provincial intangible cultural heritage, in the traditional-crafts category. China Gansu Net reported in January 2025 that the provincial government had published the list with the technique on it. China Gansu Net quotes Zhai Siwen (翟思温), inheritor of the craft at Zhai's Flatbread (翟记大饼), who says the skill was handed down in his family and that he learned it from his father as a boy.

In Pingliang city, the municipal intangible-heritage exhibition hall on the heritage street of Kongtong Ancient Town (崆峒古镇) had just opened at the May Day holiday of 2024. According to the provincial culture and tourism department, its second floor shows guokui making alongside vinegar brewing, liquor making and roast chicken (烧鸡).