Local delights to set more taste buds tingling

Gan Jinming, president of Liuzhou Vocational and Technical College, which is one of the initiators of the alliance, said the institutions will explore an effective way to equip young workers with skills, develop industry with local characteristics, and drive the regional economy.

"The 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) encourages the development of characteristic industries based on local conditions. The alliance aims to help train more high-caliber talent to serve industrial development," Gan said, adding that it will promote regional cooperation in education, production and the sharing of market resources.

The nine members of the alliance comprise the college's luosifen industry school, Qianjiang Crayfish College in Hubei province, the zongzi industry school in Hechi, Guangxi, a school in Pingjiang, Hunan province, that specializes in spicy gluten strips, and schools focusing on local noodles in Yibin, Sichuan province, and in Baoji, Shaanxi province.

Chen Huan, head of the ranmian, or "burning noodles", school at Yibin Vocational and Technical College, said the school wants to learn from its luosifen partner how to develop new products, run a business, build brands, and how the industry school is run. By joining the alliance, the Yibin college also wants to establish exchanges with other industry schools and companies.

Ranmian noodles are spicy, water-free, heavy in oil and are mixed with crushed peanuts and pickled leaf mustard. The dish, a specialty in Yibin, is a Sichuan provincial intangible cultural heritage.