Inside a Lanzhou beef noodle restaurant in downtown London, UK, a young man stretches his arms and exerts flexible force from his wrists. A ball of white dough flips up and down in his hands and is quickly pulled and stretched, and evenly thick noodles fall smoothly into the boiling soup pot. Inside the restaurant, diners hold chopsticks and savor this authentic delicacy from the banks of the Yellow River in Lanzhou, China. The soup is rich and mellow, the noodles are chewy, and their taste buds are filled with a strong oriental flavor.
In Gansu, thousands of miles away, at the provincial labor and skills competition for a million workers, a noodle-pulling master from Gansu Xinglong Lanzhou Beef Noodle Vocational Training School pulled four types of noodles—capillary-thin noodles, chive-leaf noodles, buckwheat-ridge noodles, and wide thin noodles—within two minutes. A single noodle as fine as white silk trembled gently in the air.
From the banks of the Yellow River to the banks of the Thames, from skill competitions to overseas stores, this bowl of Lanzhou beef noodles, born in a major town along the Silk Road, is taking culture as its soul, industry as its foundation, and talent as its wings. It has evolved from street fast food into a super engine driving a trillion-yuan industry and connecting world civilizations, writing a vivid legend of "small noodles, big industry".
Cultural Globalization: A Bowl of Noodles Builds a Bridge Connecting China and the World
The roots of Lanzhou beef noodles are deeply embedded in the fertile soil of cultural integration along the thousand-year-old Silk Road. "Wheat was introduced from West Asia, spices originated from the Western Regions, and beef carries the dietary traditions of nomadic peoples. The convergence and integration of these three elements in Lanzhou have given birth to this distinctive delicacy that 'originates from the world and belongs to China'." Liang Shunjian, Chairman of the Lanzhou Beef Noodles International Alliance, stated that today, endowed with profound cultural heritage, Lanzhou beef noodles are breaking through the traditional model of "opening stores overseas". Centered on cultural communication, they are ushering in a new chapter of international development.
In May 2023, the first overseas Lanzhou Beef Noodle Research and Experience Workshop, the "Lanzhou Noodle Bailie Workshop", was officially inaugurated in Auckland, New Zealand. Co-built by Bailie Vocational College, Gansu Jinweide Ramen Culture Industry Group, Lanzhou University of Resources and Environment, and the New Zealand Bailie Training Base, this workshop integrates skills training, interesting study tours, catering services, and cultural experiences. It is no longer a simple catering export, but a bridge for spreading Chinese food culture and connecting the hearts of people at home and abroad.
"Peili Workshop is specially designed for foreign primary, secondary and university students as well as citizens. Through activities such as watching documentaries and receiving on-site hand-pulled noodle making lessons, it enables overseas people to immerse themselves in the cultural charm of Lanzhou beef hand-pulled noodles," introduced Liang Shunjian. Up to now, the workshop has been established in more than ten countries including New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, and has held over a thousand events such as study tours, training sessions and entrepreneurship incubation programs, attracting tens of thousands of overseas participants.
In New Zealand, seven sessions of the "Chinese + Lanzhou Beef Noodle Pulling Skills" training have attracted more than 500 local participants. They have not only mastered the skill of pulling noodles but also understood the Silk Road stories behind it. In Spain, the workshop has been deeply integrated into the local vocational education system, incorporating noodle pulling skills into credit-bearing courses, making it a model for China's vocational education to "go global".
Today, Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup has spread to more than 60 countries and regions around the world, with over 600 stores opened. It is expected that the number of overseas stores will exceed 1,000 by 2026. What is more remarkable is that a growing number of "foreign faces" are working as noodle pullers in overseas stores. They inherit the craftsmanship with their hands and convey friendship through taste, making this bowl of noodles a vivid carrier for exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations.
Full-chain Development: From Farm to Table to Global Standards
A seemingly simple bowl of Lanzhou beef noodle soup is backed by a huge industrial chain covering agriculture, animal husbandry, processing and trade, hiding trillion-level industrial potential. According to statistics from the Lanzhou Beef Noodle International Alliance, there are more than 4,000 beef noodle shops in Gansu with an annual turnover of 12 billion yuan. They consume 87,600 tons of flour, 14,600 tons of beef, and over 30,000 tons of various vegetables and seasonings each year, directly driving the large-scale development of planting and breeding industries in Gansu. From farmland to dining table, from raw materials to finished products, Lanzhou beef noodle soup is taking the coordination of the entire industrial chain and standardized construction as its focus, building a solid foundation to support its international development.
Foreign students learning ramen
"To go global, we must first industrialize and establish a unified raw material supply and distribution system," Liang Shunjian stated frankly. To solve the problem of maintaining authentic taste overseas, Lanzhou is fully promoting the construction of a beef noodle industrial park, building a full-chain system covering "source planting – standardized production – cold-chain distribution – terminal sales". On the raw material side, exclusive planting and breeding bases have been established. "Chinese prickly ash is produced in Yuanlong Town of Tianshui and Wudu, chili peppers come from the Hexi Corridor and Tianshui, garlic is purchased from Minle, and beef mainly comes from high-altitude areas of southern Gansu. Everything from soil, seeds and climate to pesticide residues and breeding standards is controlled in accordance with international norms," Liang Shunjian said
Meanwhile, Lanzhou has cultivated more than 60 enterprises in the whole industrial chain of pre-packaged beef noodles, achieving an in-depth integration of traditional craftsmanship and modern industry. Products such as freeze-dried vegetable packs and standardized soup base packs are sold worldwide through e-commerce platforms and global supermarkets and stores, enabling the "Lanzhou flavor" to break the constraints of time and space and enter thousands of households around the globe.
"Large-scale production not only reduces costs but also attracts the clustering of supporting enterprises such as food processing, cold-chain warehousing and packaging design, forming an industrial cluster worth nearly one trillion yuan," said Liang Shunjian. Today, Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup has developed a diversified pattern of "catering + pre-packaged food + cultural creativity + cultural tourism". It has been selected as one of the first batch of "China Renowned Consumer Brands", with sales revenue of its entire industrial chain exceeding 60 billion yuan. From store expansion to industrial agglomeration, and from manual production to intelligent manufacturing, Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup is taking industrialization and standardization as its driving forces, breaking geographical restrictions and thriving in the global market.
Talent Empowerment: Skilled Professionals Safeguarding Industrial Global Expansion
Talent is the top priority for industrial development. For Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup to go global, it essentially needs the support of interdisciplinary talents who are proficient in technology, fluent in foreign languages and skilled in management. In recent years, taking the integration of industry and education as a starting point, Lanzhou has established a full-chain talent cultivation system of "college training + enterprise practical training + overseas incubation", injecting continuous vitality into the internationalization of the industry.
"We have trained nearly 50,000 students in total, who are employed and pursuing entrepreneurship both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, we have established the China Lanzhou Beef Noodle Industry-Education Integration Community with Lanzhou Modern Vocational College. So far, more than 70 vocational colleges, research institutions, upstream and downstream supply chain enterprises, and leading beef noodle enterprises from home and abroad have joined it, specifically addressing the talent demand for the globalized and large-scale development of Lanzhou beef noodles," introduced Liang Shunjian.
To support overseas development, the Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup International Alliance has established a professional team to provide comprehensive support for enterprises going global, including talent export, skills training, raw material procurement, and store design. At present, the alliance has more than 100 member units, and well-known brands such as Jinweide, Mazilu, 1915, Shejianjian, and Dongfanggong have expanded overseas one after another, driving thousands of beef noodle chefs to go global.
Talents "going global" have further driven the internationalization of vocational education. Liang Shunjian stated that we should take the overseas development of the "Lanzhou Beef Noodle Peili Workshop" as an opportunity to propel vocational education in Gansu to accelerate its going-global pace, carry out international cooperative school-running, cultivate skilled talents tailored to the needs of various countries, and provide solid talent support for the industrial cooperation between our province and countries co-building the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as for Chinese enterprises going global. Today, the craftsmanship of Lanzhou beef noodle making has been integrated into the vocational education systems of many regions. From skills training to academic education, and from talent export to standard export, vocational education in Gansu has developed in tandem and in synergy with the beef noodle industry. (Reporter: Shen Qi, Text/Photos)