Bowl of famous Lanzhou noodles fills stomachs, pockets

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Northwest China's Gansu Province is one of the country's poorest regions. Yet almost six million people there have been lifted out of poverty since 2012, and the poverty rate has dropped from 33.2 percent to less than 6 percent.

In order to improve the lives of the poor, local governments have offered courses to train them with job skills. One such offering is teaching them how to make the iconic regional treat that has won foodies in China and around the world — Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup.

Zhang Liming, 41, is a Lanzhou beef noodle master who has spent half his life making the dish. Now, he is working for a local noodle shop with a hundred years of history.

He arrives at the shop around dawn and wraps up around three in the afternoon — his only days off are during the Chinese New Year. He is very blunt when asked why he chose this job — he did not do well in school but needed to feed himself. With touches of enthusiasm, he is now making enough money, about 6,000 yuan, to feed a family of three.

“There are chefs who can make noodles beautifully and their techniques look like floating clouds and flowing water — very smooth. I work hard to achieve that,” said Zhang.

Zhang Liming (L) can make five bowls of noodles every minute. /CGTN Photo

The noodle shop he's working for, Mazilu Beef Noodle, sells 4,000 bowls on a daily basis. Zhang said the job is not easy and people should not just act on impulse to decide to learn it and quit in one or two months when their interest fades.

In the city of Lanzhou alone, there are over 1,500 noodle shops with an annual turnover of some two billion yuan (roughly 300 million U.S. dollars). These bowls of noodles help drive an industry in the region — one of the poorest in China — in eliminating poverty.

Lanzhou beef noodles are also expanding to other parts of the country — a nationwide market of 60 billion yuan (roughly 10 billion U.S. dollars). But what makes Lanzhou beef noodle soup taste good and unique are chefs from the region. Training classes are established to train more noodle masters — for people from poverty stricken areas. The courses are free.

Gansu Xinglong Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup Vocational Training School is one of them. The school often conducts classes in mountainous areas, farmlands as well as local communities so that people from these poverty-stricken areas do not have to leave their families behind.

Zhang Guimei (R), headmaster of Gansu Xinglong Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup Vocational Training School, has been leading the school to offer free classes to the poor for the past five years. /CGTN Photo.

In the last five years, the school has taught some 2500 low-income individuals every year — and 90 percent of them were able to find better-paying jobs. In addition to jobs, these training courses also help them better understand society.

“A lot of people from poverty-stricken areas spend most of their busy lives farming. Their awareness of the country's policies and regulations grow thin. Besides training them with skills, we also help improve their awareness of laws and safety,” said Zhang Guimei, the headmaster for Gansu Xinglong.

China aims to eliminate extreme poverty by next year, and local governments are betting on Lanzhou beef noodle soups to help continue to win this battle. Five hundred more noodle shops are planned to open this year across Gansu Province in addition to another 1,000 in other provinces.