Cangshu Mutton 藏书羊肉
Cangshu Mutton is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Cangshu Mutton (藏书羊肉) is the mutton cooking of Cangshu (藏书), a town in Suzhou (苏州), Jiangsu. Laoqingtai (老庆泰), a time-honoured restaurant in the town that specialises in mutton dishes, is counted among the earliest mutton restaurants in Suzhou.
Where it comes from
Fu Yunxiang (傅云祥) opened Laoqingtai in 1898, the 24th year of the Qing emperor Guangxu's reign, and it became known for the sheer number of its mutton dishes. In the Republican era the Kuomintang official Li Genyuan (李根源) ate there, found the flavour distinctive and pushed for a branch on Shantang Street (山塘街) in Suzhou, which carried Cangshu Mutton into the city.
The restaurant has since passed through five generations and has opened branches as far away as Shanghai and Jiaxing (嘉兴). The Ministry of Commerce named it a China Time-honoured Brand (中华老字号) in 2010.
How it is eaten
Laoqingtai's specialities include red-braised mutton, white-cut mutton, roast lamb ribs, mutton offal soup and the whole-lamb banquet (全羊宴).
More dishes to compare
Explore related local specialties and compare their names, preparation notes and ordering guidance.
Haimen Goat Meat 海门山羊肉 →
Both are Jiangsu meat traditions named for one place: Cangshu town in Suzhou for mutton, Haimen for goat meat.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.