Dumpling frenzy for Lantern fest

Thousands of Beijingers thronged food stores across the city for yuanxiao, a traditional food for Lantern Festival, which falls today, with the level of fanaticism that can only be compared to that of eager buyers around the world waiting for the release of an Apple smart phone.

Crowds on the streets alerted police, forced retailers to impose a quota on customers and even inspired the business-minded to corner a share of the craze through a scalping-style sales strategy.

"I've waited two and a half hours and there are still 20 people ahead of me," said a customer in her 70s, surnamed Gao, who was waiting outside a Jinfang snack shop at Tiantan Lu, Dongcheng district yesterday afternoon. Some 200 people lined up outside the popular traditional snack store, with police officers in a car nearby keeping order.　

Some popular flavors have sold out, for example the healthier "sugar free" ones, according to store employees. A few people even started a scalping-like business, inviting buyers to "come with me for yuanxiao and you don't have to wait in line," in front of the store.　

Yuanxiao, small balls of glutinous rice flour in the shape of dumplings with different fillings, is the most popular food on Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the 1st lunar month.

Crowds started lining up at a branch of Daoxiangcun traditional food store at Jintai Lu, Chaoyang district before 8 am yesterday, and all the yuanxiao sold out in an hour, said a store employee surnamed Wang.

"We sell yuanxiao in four flavors," Wang said, "and to make sure we have enough product, everyone has a 2 kilogram purchase quota." This year the store has sold more than 150 kilograms of yuanxiao per day. The price remains the same as usual at festival time, 80 cents each, he said.

"Rice dumplings only sell well at festivals, when the supermarkets usually have discounts, making them even more popular," said an employee at a Merrymart Supermarket in Bailizhuang Beili, Chaoyang district.

Sun Xin, an employee with another Merrymart outlet in Deshengmen, Xicheng district, told the Global Times "customers have been snatching the dumplings, and we're exhausted restocking the freezers."

It is more about the ritual than the eating, explained Fei Sheng, a PhD student of history at Peking University.

"Tradition makes you want to do things at certain times," he said, "it's just the same as people putting up with the ordeal of buying train tickets during the Spring Festival."

Another traditional festival food, chunbing, a rolled vegetable spring pancake, has also been selling briskly since Saturday, the official beginning of spring, or lichun, according to the lunar calendar.

An employee at a pancake store near Chaoyang Park West Gate, Chaoyang district, said they were overwhelmed.

"We opened an hour earlier on Saturday for lichun," said a store employee.

"Police officers came to maintain order and guard against theft. There were so many people here that we had to limit them to 10 inside at once, to make sure the crowd didn't get out of control," she said.