Shenxian Leaf Cold Jelly 神仙叶凉粉
Shenxian Leaf Cold Jelly is featured among the local specialties of Hubei.
Image notes
Resized for the web; the photo itself has not been edited.
Shenxian Leaf Cold Jelly (神仙叶凉粉) is a jelly made from the leaves of a plant called the 'immortal's leaf' (神仙叶). In Shiyan (十堰) it belongs to Yunxi County (郧西县), where it is also known as 'immortal tofu' (神仙豆腐), and where People's Daily reports that local people have been turning the leaves into food for more than a thousand years.
Ingredients
People's Daily identifies the Yunxi plant as erchi liudaomu (二翅六道木), a species of abelia whose leaves are rich in pectin. Records of the Yunxi leaf go back to 1938, and an old gazetteer calls the plant 'tofu brushwood' (豆腐柴), says it grows in every township of the county, and notes that its leaves can be made into tofu. In 2021 China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs registered Yunxi Shenxian Leaf (郧西神仙叶) as a geographical-indication farm product.
How it is made
In the general method for leaf jelly described on Chinese Wikipedia, the leaves are washed, scalded with boiling water and stirred to a paste, the paste is squeezed through gauze, and the juice is mixed with water steeped in plant ash, then left for two or three hours to cool and set on its own. A Yunxi producer also dries the fresh leaves into powder, at a ratio of 4:1, for making the jelly to sell.
Flavour and texture
The jelly is smooth, tender and refreshing, with a slightly bitter taste.
Where it comes from
Yunxi is described as an important birthplace of the Qixi (七夕) story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and a local legend ties the jelly to them. After the two married, a famine struck, and the Weaver Girl, guided by the immortals, led the villagers up the hills to gather these leaves and pound them into jelly. Villagers therefore called it 'Weaver Girl jelly' (织女凉粉) or 'immortal jelly' (神仙凉粉), and the leaves 'immortal's leaves'.
The making technique entered Shiyan's municipal intangible cultural heritage list in 2013. In 2012 the jelly was the lead dish of a 'Yunxi table' (郧西一桌菜) presented on a CCTV programme, and in recent years it has appeared on the menus of many restaurants.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.