The annual traditional Chinese festival Duanwujie (Dragon Boat Festival) falls on June 19 this year. Traditionally, Chinese people make zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings) and eat them at home to celebrate this festival. Yet for office workers, tight work schedules makes it almost impossible to make zongzi themselves. So here are some recommended places to buy zongzi in Beijing and Shanghai.

Zongzi is a kind of rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves to form a pyramid. The stuffing is mostly made of glutinous rice and complemented with Chinese dates, red beans, and salty meats. Generally speaking, zongzi is divided into two categories, salty zongzi which is popular in South China, and the sweet ones in North China.

Zongzi brands in Beijing

Daoxiangcun

A snack chain store in Beiing, Daoxiangcun features a wide selection of zongzi, both sweet and salty ones, including those with Chinese dates, zongziChinese hamzongzi, or egg yolkzongzi.

Daoxiangcun also has wugu zong, which is stuffed with traditional Chinese grains including broomcorn grains and corn. There's also sweet bamboo tube Babao Zong, and the wrapping is the hollow bamboo tube instead of reed leaves.

Location 1: No. 117 Dongzhimen Waidajie, Chaoyang District
Tel: 010-64033443

Location 2: No. 60 Jiaoda Donglu, Haidian District
Tel: 010-62262128

Dasanyuan

Apart from ordinary salty and sweet zongzi, Dasanyuan also has purple glutinous rice zongzi, which stickier than ordinary glutinous rice zongzis.

Besides, Dasanyuan also features some zongzi stuffed with expensive seafood ingredients. And their prices are also quite high. A package containing about five such zongzi is 128 yuan.

Location 1: No.50 Jingshan Xijie, Dongcheng District
Tel: 010-64013920

Location 2: No. Jia 19, Xisanhuan Zhonglu, Haidian District
Tel: 010-63941370

Holilai

Holilai focuses on the sales of desserts and it has many chain stores in Beijing. It sells small zongzi, mainly sweet ones and priced at 6 yuan each. Holilai also has zongzi packages, the small ones contain 6 zongzi priced at 39 yuan, and big packages containing 9 zongzis at 58 yuan.

Location 1: Building No.15, Area No.2, Fangchengyuan, Fengtai District
Tel: 010-67647183

Location 2: 1/F, Peony Hotel, No. 31 Huangyuan Donglu, Haidian District
Tel: 010-62042047

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