Xitang Eight-Treasure Cake 西塘八珍糕
Xitang Eight-Treasure Cake is featured among the local specialties of Zhejiang.
Xitang Eight-Treasure Cake (西塘八珍糕) is a thin, pale grey medicinal cake from the old town of Xitang (西塘) in Jiashan County (嘉善县), Jiaxing. It was created by Zhong Daosun (钟稻荪), a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine born in Xitang in 1856, who founded the Zhong Jiefu (钟介福) pharmacy there in 1885. The pharmacy, now a China Time-honoured Brand, still makes the cake, and Xitang Eight-Treasure Cake making was placed on the third batch of Zhejiang provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2009.
Where it comes from
Zhong Daosun noticed that every summer many children suffered from zhuxia (疰夏), a seasonal complaint of listlessness, low fever and poor appetite, and that the herbal medicine for it was bitter and hard to drink. He found a recipe for an 'eight immortals cake' (八仙糕) in 'Orthodox Manual of External Diseases' (外科正宗) by the Ming dynasty physician Chen Shigong (陈实功), adjusted it, and turned it from a cake heavy on medicine and light on sugar into one heavy on sugar and light on medicine. It soon became the health food that children in every Xitang household ate against zhuxia.
According to the Jiashan county gazetteer, the cake went on sale each year at Minor Heat (小暑) and was withdrawn at the Start of Autumn (立秋), with about 12,500 kilograms sold a year. The old Zhong Jiefu pharmacy building at 11 Tangdong Street (塘东街) was listed as a Zhejiang provincial protected heritage site in 2011.
How it is made
The herbs include hawthorn, poria (茯苓), foxnut (芡实), Job's tears, hyacinth bean, malt and Chinese yam. They are ground to a fine powder so that they blend into the cake without spoiling its texture, then mixed with glutinous rice flour and white sugar, shaped and sliced. The rice flour is made from good glutinous rice harvested each autumn, roasted, milled fine on a large stone mill and stored in big jars until the following summer, a practice the makers call 'winter flour, summer use' (冬粉夏用). The finished slices keep flecks of the ground ingredients on their matte surface.
How it is eaten
Families in Jiashan and the surrounding area still buy Xitang Eight-Treasure Cake for their children, and visitors to Xitang buy it at the pharmacy, especially on public holidays. The fifth-generation maker, Ru Juanqing (汝涓青), has added newer versions, including a children's cake and a powder that is mixed with water.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-25. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.