Langzhong White Sugar Steamed Buns 阆中白糖蒸馍
Langzhong White Sugar Steamed Buns is featured among the local specialties of Sichuan.
Langzhong White Sugar Steamed Buns (阆中白糖蒸馍) are steamed wheat buns from Langzhong (阆中), a city of Nanchong (南充) in north-eastern Sichuan on the middle and upper Jialing River (嘉陵江). Langzhong's old name is Baoning (保宁), and the Sichuan press also writes about these red-stamped buns as Baoning steamed buns (保宁蒸馍).
Where it comes from
West China City Daily (华西都市报) credits the bun to Ha Gongkui (哈公奎), a Hui Muslim of Langzhong, in the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. The paper quotes the 1926 Langzhong county gazetteer on the local wheat: elsewhere in Sichuan wheat flowered at night, but some in Langzhong flowered at noon, which made its flour especially good. The flour was ground fine and sifted until it was as white as dry snow, then steamed into buns called zhengmo. The gazetteer adds that travellers carried them more than a thousand li; even when a bun was mouldy outside and dry inside, the mould could be removed and the bun soaked and steamed again, and its colour and aroma returned, even months later.
The paper also links the buns to Zhang Fei (张飞), the Shu general who held Langzhong for seven years and whose troops ate steamed buns as a staple, which later earned them the name "general's buns" (将军馍). In the Tang and Song dynasties, when the town produced four top imperial-examination graduates, they became known as "zhuangyuan buns" (状元馍).
Flavour and texture
According to West China City Daily, the bun has neither the alkaline bitterness of a Chinese mantou (馒头) nor the slight sourness of Western bread. The fermentation time of the dough, control of the heat and the proportions of the ingredients all shape the final texture.
How it is eaten
Every bun carries a red stamp, a sign of good fortune meant to bring luck in the year ahead. China News Service lists "white sugar steamed buns sold with a stamp" among the "four oddities of Langzhong" (阆中四大怪). At Spring Festival people in Langzhong start the new year by eating the stamped buns, and buyers queue for them.
The buns also go into Langyuan Sanjue (阆苑三绝) soup, described on the Sichuan provincial gazetteer website: the buns are cut into small cubes and crisped in oil until golden and hard, then served in a beef broth seasoned with vinegar to taste. One mouthful gives three Langzhong specialities at once: the beef, the bun and the vinegar.
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.