Snail noodles museum set up in south China

NANNING, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A private museum of snail rice noodles, a signature street food of Liuzhou in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, opened to public at the weekend.

The museum was set up by a local manufacturer and is dedicated to introducing and protecting the culture of river snail rice noodles, or "Luosifen" in Chinese.

Combining traditional food of the Han people with that of the Miao and Dong ethnic groups, Luosifen is a dish of rice noodles boiled with pickled bamboo shoots, dried turnip, fresh vegetables and peanuts in spiced river snail soup.

The museum tells the history, development and cooking skills of the noodles through text, video and pictures.

Visitors can see an automated production line. Every day, around 100,000 packets of river snail rice noodles are made there.

The specialty, listed as part of Guangxi's intangible cultural heritage in 2008, has became popular after the hit documentary "A Bite of China" mentioned it in 2012.

In Liuzhou City, the number of snail noodle packaging and manufacturing companies has increased from two in 2014 to 79 now. There are more than 8,600 online stores selling the specialty.

There are more than 5,000 snail rice noodles restaurants across the country and the popular snack has entered the international market. Enditem