Changshan Tribute Noodles 常山贡面
Changshan Tribute Noodles is featured among the local specialties of Zhejiang.
Changshan Tribute Noodles (常山贡面) are very fine, hand-pulled noodles from Changshan County (常山县) in Quzhou (衢州), in the west of Zhejiang. Locally they are also called suomian (索面), 'rope noodles', because the strands look like silk cord. China News Service traces their making back to the Xianheng era (咸亨) of the Tang dynasty, and says that in the Jiajing reign (嘉靖) of the Ming dynasty the court named them 'silver-thread tribute noodles' (银丝贡面) and received several hundred loads a year as tribute.
How it is made
The noodles are made entirely by hand. Liu Feng, head of the Changshan tribute noodle intangible-heritage experience hall, lists the steps as kneading the flour, cutting it into strips, working the strips, winding them onto chopsticks, hanging them on racks, pulling and coiling; makers add camellia oil and salt water along the way, which helps the noodles keep. At the Zhan family workshop, Zhejiang Daily watched makers roll rested dough into long ropes, wind them around bamboo sticks and set them on drying frames, then draw them gently downward until the strands hang like a waterfall.
Drying traditionally depended on sunshine: makers had to rush racks outdoors on clear days. Quzhou Daily reports that one Changshan cooperative has added a drying room and a sunlit greenhouse so it can work all year.
Flavour and texture
Makers describe a good strand as fine as hair and white as silver, not turning mushy when boiled and pleasantly chewy to bite. A Korean student who tasted them in Changshan found the broth clear and light and the noodles themselves faintly salty.
How it is eaten
Home cooking is quick: villager Xu Yongjun of Fangcun Town (芳村镇) boils the noodles for two minutes, lifts them out, seasons them with spring onion, ginger, garlic and chilli, and adds half a spoon of lard. In Changshan the noodles stand for a long life and are eaten at Spring Festival visits, birthdays, weddings and house moves, served hot, spicy and glossy with oil.
Where it comes from
The craft nearly died out in the 1950s, and some old makers took it up again after reform and opening began. Quzhou listed the making technique in its second batch of city intangible heritage in 2015, and in January 2023 the Zhejiang provincial government added it to the sixth batch of the provincial intangible-heritage list. Zhejiang Daily counts more than 60 noodle workshops in Qiuchuan Town (球川镇) alone, and some workshops let visitors try mixing, pulling and drying the noodles.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.