Xuyi Crayfish 盱眙小龙虾
Xuyi Crayfish is featured among the local specialties of Jiangsu.
Xuyi Crayfish (盱眙小龙虾) is the freshwater crayfish of Xuyi County (盱眙县) in Jiangsu. Li Yehong (李叶红), a Xuyi-born deputy to the National People's Congress, writes that many people learned the name Xuyi through xiaolongxia (小龙虾), the Chinese word for crayfish.
The lakes behind it
Xuyi's crayfish grow and breed mostly in the county's rivers, lakes and ponds, among them Douhu Lake (陡湖), Hongze Lake (洪泽湖) and Tianquan Lake (天泉湖). Li credits the water plants and algae in these waters for crayfish that are bright red and glossy, with clean shells and tender, plump flesh. They are cooked with a specially made thirteen-spice seasoning, shisanxiang (十三香).
Li also describes how the county looks after those waters. Dumping of waste into rivers, lakes and ponds had been harming the crayfish's habitat, and procurators, in a campaign led by the Xuyi County procuratorate, have run more than 40 public-interest inspection patrols, covering the county's 13 provincial trunk rivers, 126 small and medium reservoirs and 6 important lakes. Traders in markets around the county had also been using the Xuyi Crayfish name without right; the name has had geographical-indication product protection since June 2009.
The county holds the China Xuyi International Crayfish Festival (中国·盱眙国际龙虾节), whose 22nd edition opened shortly before Li's column appeared in July 2022. Xuyi County has been named China's crayfish capital (中国龙虾之都).
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Xuyi Crayfish 盱眙龙虾 →
The same crayfish under its protected name, with the certification history from the 2004 origin trademark to the 2015 well-known trademark.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.