Dongzikou Zhang Lao Er Liangfen: Sweet Water Noodles and Three Kinds of Liangfen
World Travel 编辑部 · 2026-09-10 · 7 min read
Dongzikou Zhang Lao Er Liangfen: Sweet Water Noodles and Three Kinds of Liangfen
By Wenshuyuan temple, Dongzikou Zhang Lao Er Liangfen is an old local name with a queue, serving the two most everyday things in Chengdu: sweet water noodles and liangfen.
Sweet water noodles: thicker than a chopstick
Sweet water noodles are a traditional Chengdu snack, named for the sweetness that comes from "copy" soy sauce.
The name misleads: the sweetness is not from sugar but from copy soy. The noodles are as thick as a chopstick's tip, made from flour and salt, rested, rolled, cut and pulled, so they are chewy and firm — jokingly called "a man's noodles". The dressing is built on copy soy with chilli oil, sesame paste and garlic, giving a compound of sweet, hot, numbing and fragrant. Served cold-tossed, glossy red, and usually made to order.
Its history runs back too: it appears as early as the sweet-water-noodle carriers of Chengdu's Huangchengba in the late Qing; in the 1940s the "carried-pole sweet water noodles" of Baiyun Temple were well known; and in 1992 Chengdu's municipal government named it a "Chengdu famous snack".
And old shops such as Dongzikou Zhang Lao Er Liangfen and Shen Tang have traded for more than thirty years, becoming the places locals and visitors go to for the taste of Chengdu. That is where this shop stands.
Two branches of liangfen: northern Sichuan and Chengdu
Liangfen in Sichuan is not a brand but a whole category. The often-mentioned northern Sichuan liangfen took a different, more commercial road: a company founded in 2003, headquartered in Nanchong, from a state shop set up in 1956; the "Northern Sichuan" mark registered in 1994, and honours including China Time-Honoured Brand, China Famous Snack and provincial intangible heritage. Its method spans four gates, eight stages and twenty-four steps, with chilli oil buried and fermented for thirty days; the technique joined the provincial heritage list in 2022. It traces to the carried-pole liangfen of the Nanchong farmer Xie Tianlu in the late Qing, improved by Chen Hongshun — and in 1960 Zhu De and He Long tasted and promoted it.
Dongzikou Zhang Lao Er is the Chengdu branch, not the same house as the northern brand. It sells local styles — yellow liangfen and spiral-cut liangfen — and with a bowl of sweet water noodles, that is Chengdu snacking in its purest form.
What to order
- Sweet water noodles: the lead. Thick, chewy, heavy on sugar, garlic and chilli — toss before eating
- Yellow liangfen: made from pea starch, soft and yielding, dressed with chilli oil and sauce
- Spiral-cut liangfen: cut into fine strands, slip and take the dressing better
- The usual order: one bowl of sweet water noodles plus one liangfen
Practical
- Where: by Wenshuyuan; fold it into a temple visit
- Queues: normal at meal times at this old name; go off-peak
- Taste: the noodles' sweetness is from copy soy; the heat is still the main event — ask for it milder if you like
- How to eat: toss the liangfen, and eat the noodles while they are still chewy
- Price: very low — one of the cheapest old names in Chengdu
Related
- Lai Tang Yuan and Zhong Dumplings: Two Old Chengdu Snack Names
- Kuanzhai Alley: Old Chengdu in Three Lanes
Photos
Sources
- Baidu Baike: sweet water noodles; northern Sichuan liangfen