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The venerable Lanzhou Pulled Beef Noodle. [Photo Source: cfanclub.cn] | Noodles, not rice, are the local favorite, particularly a steaming bowl of beef noodles named after Lanzhou, the decaying capital of Gansu Province on the Yellow River.
But in February, as noodle patrons across the city arrived for their morning fix, an unexpected notice awaited them: The price of a bowl of Lanzhou Pulled Beef Noodles was going up. A large bowl, once only 2.20 yuan, or about 27 U.S. cents, would now cost 2.50 yuan.
"Beef Noodle Price Hike Touches Off Nerves Everywhere!" declared the Western Economic Daily, a feisty local paper.
And so it did. A full-blown noodle controversy arose, with allegations of price fixing by a noodle cartel. Polls gauged public opinion. Even People's Daily, chief mouthpiece of the Communist Party, registered its indignation. Local officials promised to investigate.
But on the streets of the city's Anning District, where more than 70 noodle shops crowd into several square blocks, the noodle issue was also a reminder that millions of Chinese still live on margins so slender that a bump of a few cents for a bowl of noodles is real money.
"There is nothing I can do about it," said Yu Songling, 50, a manager at an outdoor market in Anning.
Higher costs, wage increases, taxes - even China's embrace of market economics - have been blamed for the price increase.
Inside one of the biggest shops in the neighborhood, the Gazhang Halal Beef Noodle Shop, the poster announcing the price increase hung beside a small table where the manager sold boiled eggs and tickets for noodles. In the small kitchen, a cook in a blue smock pulled noodles into long strands, twisting them in his hands like yarn before tossing them into a cauldron of boiling water.
Kitchens like this one can be a first step out of rural poverty for some migrant workers. At the Gazhang shop, all the workers are from the owner's home village, a typical arrangement. An owner gets cheap, reliable help; a migrant worker gets a trade and a start. But where last year a trained cook made about 500 yuan, or $60, a month, the rate is 800 yuan or higher this year because of increased competition for low-wage workers. At the same time, the price of flour also has risen.
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Producer:Duan
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