Xinxing Leaf-Wrapped Rice Dumplings 新兴裹蒸粽

Xinxing Leaf-Wrapped Rice Dumplings (新兴裹蒸粽) are the pyramid-shaped green rice parcels of Xinxing County (新兴县) in Yunfu (云浮), Guangdong. Nanfang Daily (南方日报) calls them a Xinxing specialty known for being soft, fragrant and smooth, made by wrapping glutinous rice, mung beans, pork and cured meats in local zongzi leaves. Xinxing families eat them at the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, and at festivals households give them to relatives and friends.

How it is made

At a dumpling factory in Liuzu Town (六祖镇), workers lay four or five leaves over a mould, spread a layer of glutinous rice and make a hollow in the middle, add a layer of mung beans, then put in pork belly and salted egg yolk. Another layer of mung beans and one of glutinous rice go on top before the leaves are folded into a pyramid and tied with thread. The finished parcels are steamed. Many rural households in Xinxing grow the leaves themselves.

Flavour and texture

Once steamed, the dumplings are strongly fragrant and melt in the mouth with a sweet, fragrant aftertaste. In home-made pork versions, the pork is braised first, and once the dumplings are steamed its fat seeps into the rice.

Where it comes from

Until 2025 Xinxing had no dedicated dumpling factory: the dumplings came almost entirely from small family workshops and were usually sold on the street. That year the Xianghe Yuan dumpling factory (香和源粽仔厂) opened in Liuzu Town, the first dumpling factory in Yunfu and Xinxing. It named its product "禅粽" ("Chan dumplings") to match the Chan culture of Xinxing as the home town of the Sixth Patriarch (六祖). Its varieties include seafood dumplings, cured sausage with wild betel leaf (蛤蒌), salted egg with pork, and purple-rice dumplings made with Weifeng purple rice (微丰紫米), a Xinxing specialty grain that is soft and slightly sweet.