Beijingers queue up for hours to buy yuanxiao for Lantern Festival

More than 1,000 Beijing residents stood in long queues in front of many time-honored food stores to buy yuanxiao, or glutinous rice balls, as the Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Festival approaches.

Eating yuanxiao is a tradition that is observed on the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated in China and some Asian countries on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunar calendar. The Lantern Festival falls on Tuesday this year.

“Customers have been queueing up since 5 am these days, and it’s not unusual to take four hours to buy yuanxiao in peak hours,” said an employee at the Jinfang Snack Restaurant, a famous establishment that sells Beijing snacks.

The employee said that staff at the restaurant have been working overtime to make yuanxiao since the Spring Festival, but have still been unable to meet demand.

“I have been here the whole morning and still there are so many people in front of me,” one customer surnamed Gao said, adding that every year it takes him hours standing in line to buy yuanxiao on the morning of the Lantern Festival. “I will also buy some for relatives and neighbors.”

Wang Xinmei, the manager of another restaurant, said they make more than 1,500 kilograms of yuanxiao a day, and that number will double the day before the festival.

In addition to traditional fillings such as sesame, sweet osmanthus, and mixed fillings, some older restaurants have also introduced new flavors for their younger customers. Huguosi Snack Restaurant offered yuanxiao filled with fresh durian, coffee and brown sugar with cream, which sold out very quickly as there were only 100 kilograms available each day.