Yuechuan Pickled Sauce
Situated in the middle of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan region, Ninghe district boasts four distinct seasons and a continental monsoon climate.
Since it is located in a staggered area of river alluvial plain and marine alluvial plain, Ninghe has a deep soil layer and high fertility. Thanks to its water system and densely covered rivers and canals, Ninghe is suitable for growing grains, beans and vegetables.
Yuelong town is located in the northeast of Ninghe district, and borders Fengrun county, Hebei province to the north and Fengnan county, Hebei province to the east.
In the dry and cold winter, there were often not enough vegetables to meet the demand. Over more than 100 years, local people used to make sauces for seasonings from sea salt, soybeans, broad beans, and wheat flour, as well as traditional pickling sauces from various vegetables. Since the middle of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the production skills were introduced from nearby Tangshan, and were developed locally. As early as the 1970s, the pickled cucumbers and pickled peppers produced by local pickling factories were exported to Japan.
The traditional skills of making vegetable pickled products of the Yuechuan Food Processing Factory in Yuelong town have been passed down for five generations. Yuechuan's traditional pickling and sauce- making techniques, including those used in making red oil bean paste and tempeh, have been inherited and developed from generation to generation.