Food and Drink · 13 places · 5 regions
Noodles pulled by hand, dumplings pleated, tea picked and fired in a wok. A few of these are distilleries and roast duck houses where the work is done in front of you and nothing is handed over.
13 of them, grouped by region. The last column carries the four things that decide whether the day works: what language it is taught in, what you come away with, how it is booked, and the price where a venue publishes one. 6 of these are for watching rather than doing, and say so at the top of the entry. Or see all five crafts.
2 places
North China (华北)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Watching onlyQuanjude, Qianmen (全聚德)The Qianmen branch opened in 1864 and roasts duck over fruitwood in an open hung oven. An open counter lets you watch the carving done in front of you, blade by blade, along with the roasting itself. There is almost nothing to do with your own hands.On the national intangible heritage list | Beijing | Taught by demonstration Nothing to take home Phone ahead |
| Watching onlyShanxi Noodle Museum, Taiyuan (山西面食博物馆)Inside the Shanxi Huiguan restaurant on Heping South Road: one floor of noodle history and the tools, another reconstructing how the province’s noodles are made. Cooks steam flower buns, model dough figures, roll oat noodle nests and flick dough fish into the pot in front of you. Free to walk around, and watching is the whole of it. | Taiyuan, Shanxi | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
4 places
East China (华东)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| China Wuyi Tea Expo Park, Nanping (中华武夷茶博园)A graded scenic park on the Nine Bend stream at Sangu, laying out how Wuyi rock tea is made: withering, shaking the leaf, and the charcoal roasting. Around the Qingming period visitors can join the picking, the shaking and the roasting themselves. The hands-on part is charged separately.On the national intangible heritage list | Nanping, Fujian | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in Free |
| Watching onlyChina Huaiyang Cuisine Museum, Yangzhou (中国淮扬菜博物馆)Reopened in 2023 inside the Lu family salt merchant’s house, itself a national monument, with display rooms, a tasting area and a food street outside. The displays trace where Huaiyang cooking came from, and a chef sometimes shows the knife work for wensi tofu. The tasting area serves dishes such as stewed lion’s head meatballs. | Yangzhou, Jiangsu | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
| Yin Studio (Dumpling Class), Shanghai (Yin Studio)A non-commercial kitchen studio in the city, where the session starts at the dough and goes through pleating and the pork filling, then into the steamer. You eat your own xiaolongbao hot, with Chinese tea alongside, and the recipe goes home with you. | Shanghai | Taught in English Home the same day Book on their own site Passport is enough to book |
| China National Tea Museum, Longjing Galleries (中国茶叶博物馆（龙井馆区）)A national first-grade museum given over to tea, its Longjing galleries set among the tea terraces at Wengjiashan, with a hall on the tea-making traditions inscribed by UNESCO in 2022. In spring you pick fresh leaf in the gardens and learn to pan-fire Longjing by hand beside a master. Seasonal.Inscribed by UNESCO | Hangzhou, Zhejiang | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Book on their own site Free |
1 place
South China (华南)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Shunde Culinary Culture Centre (Master Chefs’ School) (顺德美食文化体验中心（顺德名厨学堂）)Run by the Shunde chefs’ association at the Fengcheng food court in Daliang, with a Cantonese cuisine gallery and a teaching kitchen attached. Short courses are taught by Shunde chefs themselves, steaming and stir-frying the local dishes, and students cook at the range and eat what they cook. | Foshan, Guangdong | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Phone ahead 300 yuan |
5 places
Southwest China (西南)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Watching onlyChina Liquor Culture City, Maotai (中国酒文化城)Built by the Moutai group in the 1990s inside the distillery town, nine halls covering how the spirit is made and what it means locally. Tasting in the hall is paid for separately. The visit is a guided walk through the process rather than a turn at the still.On the national intangible heritage list | Zunyi, Guizhou | Taught by demonstration Nothing to take home Walk in 60 yuan |
| Chengdu Sichuan Cuisine Museum (成都川菜博物馆)Several halls, including a collection of a few thousand objects and documents and a demonstration kitchen. The cooking class is the point here: you cook twice-cooked pork and mapo tofu yourself, eat them at the end, and leave with a certificate. | Chengdu, Sichuan | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in 60 yuan |
| Watching onlyLuzhou Laojiao Scenic Area (Guojiao 1573 Square) (泸州老窖旅游区（国窖1573广场）)On Sanxing street in Jiangyang, built around the 1573 cellar pits, which are protected as a national monument, and the distilling tradition listed as national heritage. You go through the museum and taste the cellar spirit with a guide. No part of the distilling is open to visitors.On the national intangible heritage list | Luzhou, Sichuan | Taught by demonstration Nothing to take home Walk in 35 yuan |
| Watching onlyWuliangye Liquor Culture Museum, Yibin (五粮液酒文化博览馆)Opened in 1988 inside the Wuliangye industrial park, one of the early distillery museums in the trade, with halls on the brand, the process and the history, following the grain from seed to spirit. Free to enter, and built around the guided walk and the tasting rather than any work of your own.On the national intangible heritage list | Yibin, Sichuan | Taught by demonstration Nothing to take home Walk in Free |
| China Pu’er Tea Expo Park (中华普洱茶博览苑)A graded scenic park in the tea gardens on Yingpan hill, about 29 km out of Simao, with a museum, picking areas and a working tea house. You carry a bamboo basket into the rows to pick, then fix the leaf in a wok, roll it and press it into a pu’er cake in a stone mould. | Pu’er, Yunnan | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
1 place
Northwest China (西北)
| Where you go | City | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| Lanzhou Beef Noodle Museum (兰州牛肉面博物馆)A noodle master demonstrates first: resting the dough, slapping and rolling it into a rope, shaking it out and folding it back. Then visitors take turns from kneading to pulling, drawing the dough down to hair-thin strands, which are boiled on the spot and served in beef bone broth with chilli oil.On the national intangible heritage list | Lanzhou, Gansu | Taught by demonstration Home the same day Walk in |
Getting Into a Workshop
Most of these teach in Chinese and take bookings by phone or on WeChat, which is the part that stops people from abroad. Tell our local team which craft and which week, and they will find out what is running, make the call and say what you will come away with.