After the Successful "Zibo Barbecue Pilgrimage," We Discovered a Surreal and Unconventional Side of the City...

Initially, it was just an ordinary trending topic—a wave of revenge travel by college students returning to school. They traveled in groups from Jinan to repay Zibo for its "hospitality during the pandemic."

But gradually, this matter became relevant to everyone. Since early March, the buzz around Zibo has never ceased. Zibo has become the nation's focal point during this May Day holiday.

In Zibo, traveling for 15 hours and covering 70 kilometers...

Just to take a bite of Zibo barbecue!

This is our original video filmed in Zibo. Click to watch!

Some say the last time so many outsiders came to Zibo was during the Warring States period when "Five States Allied Against Qi." Back then, smoke signals of war rose everywhere—now, it's the smoke of barbecue grills.

How popular is Zibo? So much so that everyone from the Zibo Cultural and Tourism Bureau to barbecue shop owners has issued early appeals: "There are simply too many visitors right now. We fear we can't provide adequate service—please come another time!"

After much deliberation, we ultimately took the risk and joined the "Zibo barbecue pilgrimage," defying the crowd. This city, standing unchallenged at the pinnacle of internet fame, is far more than just about barbecue.

In Zibo's barbecue world, what you're really tasting is human connection.

In fact, one question has long puzzled the people of Zibo:

What's so special about Zibo barbecue?

Following the "barbecue pilgrims," we found the answer: Zibo barbecue may not necessarily be delicious, but in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, delivery barbecue has long become an impersonal, industrial product—frozen for who knows how long. By comparison, how could Zibo barbecue not taste better?

To longtime Zibo locals, barbecue should be about the pure aroma of meat.

On the day we arrived in Zibo, our journey wasn't smooth—all hotel rooms were fully booked. But the hotel owner proactively contacted us, offering a free staff dormitory: "It's too cold today—at least you won't freeze."

Heartwarming stories keep unfolding in Zibo, as if the city were draped in a virtual reality filter: helpful citizens fulfilling tourist "NPC quests" are rewarded with a red flower. But anyone caught overcharging immediately flashes "wanted stars" like in GTA, becoming a target of a citywide manhunt.

Muyang Village Barbecue only has 200 tables,

Yet daily queue numbers exceed 2,000.

Photo by Tian Guoqing

Perhaps at first, people just wanted to try the famed "internet-famous" barbecue, but gradually, the nature of this event changed—it became a carnival for all.

There were college students from Guangxi who took a 30-hour train ride just for a once-in-a-lifetime youth trip; middle-aged couples from Beijing who camped overnight in a courtyard to taste the "first batch" of skewers; even a 76-year-old grandmother from Gansu who made the trip solely for a bite of barbecue... Like pilgrims, they were already exhilarated upon stepping off the train, even before entering a barbecue joint.

From energetic college students to white-haired grandmothers,

People from all corners of the country flocked to Zibo as if by prior agreement.

"15 Hours, Traveling 70 km... How Hard Is It to Eat Barbecue in Zibo?"

Compared to barbecue in most parts of the country, Zibo barbecue has a strong sense of ritual. The small stove on every table, at the cost of reducing turnover rates, maximizes diners' DIY participation. Isn’t barbecue all about the lively atmosphere of gathering around the grill with friends?

As everyone knows, the "Four Heavenly Kings" actually have five members, so it’s only logical that Zibo barbecue’s "three-piece set" has four items.

Illustration / Fish One

It’s said that when Zibo barbecue first emerged in the 1990s, grill masters set up long grills along the streets to sell skewers, just like elsewhere in the country. But business was so booming that many couldn’t wait for the skewers to cook and snatched them off the grill. Half-raw skewers caused stomachaches, so sharp-eyed shop owners quickly fixed this "bug" by providing small stoves for customers to heat their own skewers.

Of course, a more plausible explanation is: the small stoves are just to keep the skewers warm. But that answer—lacks a touch of magic.

A live tutorial on Zibo barbecue from a grill shop owner.

"15 Hours, Traveling 70 km... How Hard Is It to Eat Barbecue in Zibo?"

About ten kilometers northwest of Zibo Station, at Haiyue Longgong, we witnessed a brand-new barbecue city rising at "Zibo speed." Just days ago, the cement hadn’t even been laid, yet three days later, it was open for business. Grill owners occasionally came here to "command the scene," envisioning grand plans for hundreds or even thousands of tables. But more stall owners simply sighed: "We’re exhausted, just let it end! Let’s take a break for May Day!"

The Zibo Barbecue City, built for the May Day holiday, rises from the ground.

Perhaps no city has ever been so troubled by an overwhelming number of tourists that it repeatedly pushes the crowds away. Amid the smoky haze of barbecue, the city grows ever more surreal and hard to decipher.

Zibo Divided into Five, Five Times the Magic

Around the early years of the Kangxi era, Pu Songling, a scholar from Zichuan who repeatedly failed the imperial exams, set up a tea stall at the village entrance. Travelers from afar could rest there and enjoy tea without paying—they only needed to share stories they’d heard from across the land. To borrow the language of fantasy novels, this place became a singularity where gods and mortals converged.

The distant rolling mountains resemble the immortal abodes of a xianxia world.

Zibo has never lacked the surreal traits of an "internet sensation": Master Ma Baoguo’s "famous battle" took place here, and Zhu Yidan, the "boring rich guy," is also a native of Zibo.

But when we return to reality, wandering tipsy among Zibo’s countless barbecue stalls and asking locals about their origins, we might hear unfamiliar place names like Boshan, Zichuan, or Zhangdian—as if avoiding some taboo, they’d never say "Zibo"!

Zibo’s fragmented nature rivals even that of Jiangsu.

Wait, then what exactly is Zibo?

Like many industrial cities that emerged in modern times, Zibo is also a city dug out from coal mines and pulled in by railways. Take Zhangdian, now known as the "Jerusalem of barbecue" and the city center of Zibo, for example. A 1922 survey report described it as follows: "Before the construction of the Jiaoji Railway, this place had no commerce to speak of."

Railways and coal mines are the skeleton and flesh that shaped Zibo.

Unlike Zhangdian, which remained obscure for much of history, other parts of Zibo boast far more ancient histories. Three of its five districts—Linzi, Zichuan, and Zhoucun—are renowned as millennia-old counties. It wasn't until the discovery of the Boshan and Zichuan coal mines in the 1920s that the first characters of the two names merged, giving rise to "Zibo," the unified name for the five districts and three counties in this Shandong "C-position." It resembles a loosely assembled aggregate, much like Jiangsu, forcibly pieced together.

The picturesque Qisheng Lake Park,

seems utterly disconnected from any industrial zone.

When people from Zibo's five districts gather, their differing accents make it sound like a rap battle of mutual disses: Boshan men are henpecked, Zichuan folks aren't good-looking, Zhoucun people lisp and often mispronounce "Zibo" as "Zhibo"... It seems only under the recent barbecue craze that they've united for the first time to defend Zibo's glory.

Linzi is Zibo's undisputed historical cornerstone. As the world's premier metropolis 3,000 years ago, it witnessed countless stories: the birthplace of soccer, the cradle of Qi culture; where Confucius heard the Shao music and was so enchanted he forgot the taste of meat for months; where Yan Ying ingeniously used two peaches to kill three warriors, inventing history's earliest "n-1 ordering system"...

Photo by Xiangyun Photography / Tuchong Creative

In that era of collapsing rites and chaos, only the people of Qi between the sea and Mount Tai "clothed and shod the world," their dignified and scholarly demeanor attracting wise men from everywhere to gather in reverence.

"The King of Qi delighted in the distant customs of the Five Emperors and admired the splendid achievements of the Three Kings, summoning extraordinary talents from afar and compiling the grand theories of a hundred schools."

During the Warring States period, Duke Huan of Qi, Tian Wu, founded the Jixia Academy, arguably China's earliest think tank and institution of higher learning. Mencius, Xunzi, Zouzi... The diverse doctrines and viewpoints of the Hundred Schools of Thought clashed here, their intellectual sparks igniting the brilliant stars in the night sky, joining contemporary philosophers like the Buddha and Socrates to form a vast galaxy, constructing humanity's Axial Age.

It has become one of the must-experience activities in Zibo.

Photo / Internet

In truth, as the capital of Qi, Zibo's natural conditions were far from ideal: "When Duke Tai was enfeoffed at Yingqiu, the land was saline and sparsely populated." Located at the northern foot of the central Shandong mountains, Zibo's crisscrossing terrain hindered agriculture, so the people of Qi adapted by developing commerce and industry.

The Qi state established the "Pottery Supervisor" position to oversee ceramic production. The porcelain and glass forged in its kilns are the enduring, resplendent colors of Zibo's land across millennia.

Combined with the current craze for Zibo barbecue,

the centuries-old Boshan glass craftsmanship can also become trendy.

"15 Hours, 70 Kilometers... How Hard Is It to Eat Barbecue in Zibo?"

By the Qing Dynasty at the latest, Boshan had become the national center of the glass industry. Zibo's locally produced Huaguang porcelain has repeatedly been selected for state banquets.

In 1869, German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen arrived in Boshan and couldn't help but marvel: "Boshan City, shrouded in towering smoke, is the most industrially advanced city I have seen to date!"

By the early 20th century, with the laying of railways, people from all corners of the land were connected by the rumbling steam engines, giving rise to new settlements. Zhoucun, once just a "village," became the center of the northern silk industry. In 1904, when the newly opened Jiaoji Railway passed through Zibo, Zhoucun opened its own port, attracting "goods from all under heaven."

Zhoucun Dry Port, the "Wall Street" of old Shandong.

Photo/Li Ping'an, Image/Tuchong Creative

It is no exaggeration to say that Zibo is a microcosm of China's modern national industry and commerce, struggling tenaciously amid the "three great mountains." The coal from Zichuan and Boshan burned fiercely, driving the industrial furnace to shape the urban outline of a rising Zibo.

But as the tide of the times receded, this heavy industrial city built on coal gradually stranded on the shore. Like our playful nickname for the Northeast—"light industry shouting, heavy industry barbecue"—the steampunk genes etched into these heavy industrial cities became the perfect soil for nurturing the barbecue industry. It was just a matter of moving the coal from factory warehouses into barbecue grills.

They were the first loyal customers of Zibo barbecue.

"15 Hours, 70 Kilometers... How Hard Is It to Eat Barbecue in Zibo?"

Riding the recent wave of Zibo barbecue's popularity, Boshan glasswork timely introduced barbecue-themed glass ornaments. Those "clumsy and heavy" industrial relics are becoming increasingly fashionable and light.

The scattered districts of Zibo are like a multifaceted kaleidoscope, offering us different perspectives of the city—both traditional and modern.

Boshan cuisine is the most authentic taste of Zibo.

When "travel special forces" from across the country flock to the Eighth Bureau Market, posing for photos with the newly popular网红 snacks like purple rice cakes, grilled pancakes, and milk sticks, nearby Zibo locals might not say anything outright, but deep down, they can't help but scoff: What Eighth Bureau Market? It's just our usual grocery stroll!

In fact, many Zibo residents have never even heard of the Eighth Bureau Market.

Photo/Mu Rongda

Only local Boshan cuisine holds a special place in the hearts of Zibo people.

Shandong, "a land of mountains and seas with fertile soil stretching thousands of miles," is a province where mountains and seas blend. Located at Shandong's "C位," Zibo boasts abundant produce from both land and sea. Weishan Lake's seven-hole lotus root, Bohai Bay's mackerel tails, Laiwu's black pork, Jiaodong's napa cabbage... all are stewed into a pot of "suguo," creating a Shandong flavor map that gathers the treasures of mountains and seas.

As long as tender napa cabbage is added, no water is needed for suguo.

As the old Boshan saying goes: "Poor or rich, suguo is a must." Apart from the essential fish, other ingredients can be freely mixed according to one's means. Layer them in a clay pot, add plenty of salt, sugar, soy sauce, and "taboo" (Boshan dialect for vinegar), then let time do the rest, stewing everything to tender perfection.

For Boshan people, the taste of suguo often carries another layer of meaning. Under low temperatures, suguo congeals into a jelly-like texture. Scoop a spoonful, and the broth, condensed with the umami of various ingredients, dances on the tongue—this unchanging rich and sour aroma from childhood is the unforgettable flavor of New Year's memories!

Authentic suguo tastes best when cooled, with the broth fully congealed.

The prosperity of the ceramics and glass industries gave the affluent Boshan people leisure to ponder food. But just as Chongqing's dockworkers invented hotpot, the participation of many manual laborers in mining and industry inevitably gave Boshan cuisine its heavy, salty, and intensely stimulating "bold flavor" character.

In ancient times, before chili peppers were introduced to China, the people of Boshan adapted to local conditions by using Sichuan peppercorns, which were abundant in Shandong. While fried pork is not uncommon nationwide, Boshan's "hard-fried pork" stands out for its emphasis on "hardness": the fried tenderloin is coated with a layer of Sichuan peppercorn powder, toasted in a pan and crushed with a rolling pin. Even the toughest individuals would succumb to the electrifying, tingling sensation on their tongues.

See the Sichuan peppercorns? They are the soul of Boshan fried pork!

As the foremost of China's eight major cuisines, Shandong cuisine once traveled north along the Grand Canal during the Qing Dynasty, becoming a supreme delicacy in the imperial court. In Boshan, an important birthplace of Shandong cuisine, local dishes may not use extravagant ingredients like imperial delicacies—such as exotic seafood, abalone, or shark fin—but they are no less refined in their culinary techniques.

Take, for example, the "Tofu Box" (outsiders call it "Tofu Box-zi," but locals in Zibo don’t add the "zi"). First, the tofu can’t be just any kind—it must be made with Boshan’s traditional sour brine or salt brine. Such tofu is "durable" and won’t fall apart like gypsum tofu at the slightest touch.

It once graced Emperor Qianlong’s dining table multiple times,

proving that the Tofu Box is anything but simple.

The purchased tofu is first cut into rectangular blocks, fried to set its shape, hollowed out, and stuffed with filling to resemble a box. Finally, it’s steamed with sauce—though this is a simplified, "deconstructed" version after countless iterations. In more traditional restaurants, each piece of tofu is tied with a leek to ensure the "box" doesn’t open when picked up. A sprinkle of yellow soybean sprouts (with tails removed) is added as the "golden key" to open the box.

However, to uphold an entire cuisine, at least a full banquet table is required. The "Four-Four Banquet" is the most exquisite and elaborate feast in Boshan cuisine, featuring alternating main and side dishes, always culminating in an unchanging fish course.

The Four-Four Banquet: the pride of Boshan cuisine.

But seasoned gourmands only take a small taste of this obligatory fish, as it will later be stir-fried again and reinvented as the grand finale—"Smashed Fish Soup." "Smashed" here refers to savoring the flavor: the leftover fish is stir-fried with vinegar and pepper. After drinking and feasting, a bowl of this hot, sour, and spicy fish soup is the most comforting way to end the meal.

Indeed, barbecue is great, but eating it every day can lead to internal heat. Only the simplest, most genuine human touch can truly soothe the ordinary soul.

Text Editor | Feitian Yimian

Unsigned Images | Visual China