A snack craze is going on in the Qianmen area, one of the best known traditions of old Beijing, which has survived for centuries. Every day people line up in long queues in the narrow, shabby alleys to be served with their favorite Beijing-style snacks including baodu (quick-boiled tripe), luzhu huoshao (a type of pork soup with bread bits), and many other traditional favorites.

On the morning of February 26, outside the Langfang Ertiao hutong, one of the best known hutongs and packed with Beijing style snack outlets, there was a queue of customers 100 meters long waiting for their turn to be seated in Baodu Feng -- famed in Beijing for making baodu. A few meters away a queue was waiting in front of the Luzhu Chen famous for making pork soup from pig's small intestine.

A waiter came out of the shop and explained to the queue, "Everything for the morning has been sold out -- the next service will start at 4:30 PM." Disappointed, people began to walk away to try their luck at other snack outlets. A man came out of the shop with two bowls of luzhu in his hand and sat at a small table near the shop's entrance. "I have waited more than an hour for these two bowls of luzhu...the good days will soon be over."

People flocked to the Langfang Ertiao hutong in the mood for what would perhaps be the last snack carnival before May when all the laozihao (old-brand) shops will have moved away and the massive redevelopment started.

A comprehensive renovation plan for the Qianmen's eastern blocks, in discussion since 2004, was finalized at the end of last year. According to the plan, a new pedestrian street will replace the old shopping area. A total of more than 80 laozihaos in the Qianmen area will be removed and it's estimated only about a third of them will be able to return and resume business when the work is completed.

The number of people visiting the Qianmen recently have far outnumbered the usual and at times surpassed the capacity of the laozihaos. The clientele enjoyed not just the delicacy of the food. Sitting in a snack shop with a history running back hundreds of years, the atmosphere created was unlikely to be found anywhere else. One of the laozhihao posted a notice saying "Still in Business" to ease the growing concerns of the rising number of customers.

Baodu Feng is the biggest of the three most famous laozhihao snack bars in the Langfang Ertiao hutong. It's a two-story building of about 170 square meters. "We have set up a new and much bigger outlet in Chaishikou's Lanman hutong and will start business there in March but our old premise will continue operation until May when we have to close," the 74-year-old owner Feng Guangju said. "We will come back after the renovation and serve our clientele the way we have always done."

Ma Guorui, the owner of Yueshengzhai Restaurant which was established in 1775, is not so optimistic. "We haven't found a new outlet. Our restaurant is smaller and has less capital. I hope there'll be preferential policies for our laozihaos so that we can come back after the renovation. As the owner of a historic business I hope we can continue."

The new Qianmen pedestrian street will be completed in 2008.

(China.org.cn by Wind Gu, March 6, 2006)