Lanzhou Ramen is called beef noodles or beef bowl in Lanzhou. Old Lanzhou people call it clear soup beef noodles because it is related to the small car beef in Huaiqing Prefecture. Only people outside Lanzhou call it Lanzhou Ramen.

Lanzhou beef noodle soup is delicious, rich in nutrients, and the noodles are smooth and chewy. It has great influence across the country and has a wide audience. In 1999, it was rated as one of the three key promotion varieties of Chinese fast food by the country, so it is known as the best noodle in the world.

In the People’s Daily report on Lanzhou Beef Noodles on August 28, 2006, as well as the Lanzhou Beef Noodles Association’s participation in the competition of China’s top ten noodles and the application for collective trademarks, the following information was disclosed: Lanzhou Ramen, known as "the best noodle in the world", originated from Boai County, Henan Province. During the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, Ma Liuqi of the Dongxiang ethnic group learned it from Chen Weijing, a native of Qinghua, Huaiqing Prefecture and brought it to Lanzhou. Later generations Chen Hesheng and Ma Baozai agreed on the standard of "one clear, two white, three green, four red and five yellow". Who are Chen Weijing, Chen Weilin, Chen Xiesheng and Chen Hesheng? The story will restore a period of history more than 200 years ago.

1. Qinghua Town is the main transportation route for Shanxi merchants to reach the Central Plains. Not only is Huaiqing business flourishing in this area, but also Shanxi merchants often settle here. The town is lined with shops and has a prosperous economy. It is known as Huaiqing. The economic center of eight counties in the prefecture. During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Keda, the 11th generation of the Chen family, and Chen Guangxue, the 12th generation of the Chen family, began to make small carts of beef and beef noodles to earn money to support their children and grandchildren in their studies.

2. Chen’s beef noodles are cooked with beef, beef liver, beef bones, and chicken soup, and are cooked with natural spices, Suzhai radish and Shangzhuang ginger. The small car beef is made with beef and beef tendon. , divided into red braised and white braised beef. The local reputation is: "The beef on the cart is delicious, and the beef noodles are fragrant from all directions." It has long been famous in Huaiqing Mansion. Chen Keda often cooks his hometown noodles with boiled meat soup or stewed soup for his family, which is extremely delicious. Noodles made with fresh soup are called clear soup noodles, and noodles made with stewed soup are called old soup noodles. This noodle is not only delicious but also nutritious. The children and grandchildren have a good taste and can study with peace of mind. Chen Jiagang's family heirloom has become a good story.

3. Chen Weijing (the grandson of Chen Keda and the son of Chen Guangxue), the thirteenth generation of the Chen family, was talented and fond of reading since he was a child. He was proficient in astronomy and arithmetic in the Four Books and Five Classics. Chen Weijing passed the Linsheng examination and was recommended as a tribute student by Huaiqing Prefecture with excellent results. He entered the Imperial College in the capital to study, causing a sensation in the countryside. He is also known as the "Huaiqing Food Saint" because of his superb cooking skills.

4. The Imperial College of the Qing Dynasty was the highest administrative agency for managing education and the highest institution of learning established by the state. It is located on Guozijian Street (formerly known as Chengxian Street) in Andingmen, Dongcheng District, Beijing. Chen Weijing is an outstanding student selected by the local government, so he can enter the inner class of the Imperial College and enjoy benefits such as tuition fees and food expenses. In addition, Chen Weijing's family is in better condition, and he has no worries about food and clothing, so his life is relatively wealthy. At that time, he met Ma Liuqi, a fellow student from Gansu who came from a poor family and was from Dongxiang. He was the only ethnic minority student at that time. He mainly relied on loans to study and lived a relatively poor life. The dandy boys looked down on him, and distanced themselves from him intentionally or unintentionally. Students who make up classes are not eligible for the court's food and tuition subsidies. Ma Liuqi often eats steamed buns with pickles. Chen Weijing once quoted four sentences from Tang Hanyu to describe Ma Liuqi's life: "Too great After studying for four years, I will protect you, and everyone will dislike it." (鑑: pickled vegetables. Use pickled vegetables for breakfast and dip them in salt for dinner.) For this reason, Chen Weijing often gave Ma Liu to his food and clothing. Seven help.

5. Chen Weijing was very sympathetic to this classmate, and Chen Weijing often cared for him. Ma Liuqi was very moved and liked to associate with Chen Weijing. Chen Weijing saw that he lived a poor life, so he taught him his family's craft of making beef noodles.

Chen Weijing calls the Beef Noodles in a Small Cart: "The beef soup has bones and liver, which warms the abdomen, makes the blood and qi strong, and prevents all diseases."

6. Ma Liuqi, who was born into a poor family, opened the first beef noodle shop in Lanzhou at the entrance of Gongyuan Lane in Lanzhou, Jincheng. The name was "Majia Daye Beef Noodles", specializing in clear soup beef noodles. Later, he opened the first beef noodle shop in Lanzhou. A beef noodle shop opened in Agan Town. Due to Ma Liuqi's good management, the business was booming. The fragrance of beef noodles and the strong aroma of spicy pepper became a delicacy in Jincheng.

In order to commemorate Ma Liuqi who brought Suzhai Chenjia beef noodles to Lanzhou, two hundred years later Chen Jiuru, a descendant of the Chen family, brought "Uncle Majia beef noodles" back to Jiaozuo, the birthplace of Lanzhou beef noodles. "Master Ma's Beef Noodles" reopened in Jiaozuo. Wang Danwang, the Chief Minister of Gansu Province, said: "Lanzhou Ramen is famous all over the world, and the preparation method comes from Huaiqing Prefecture." Tang Ruqian's appearance is like gold, and his entrance is like a fairy. Poet and Chinese scholar Zhang Shu also praised it in his poem "Rain Passing Jinchengguan": Ramen noodles are fragrant, but only Ma's.

7. Chen Weijing insists on passing on farming and reading to his family, has strict requirements on his children, and cultivates in them the simple qualities of loving reading and loving labor since childhood. He has three sons, all of whom are very successful.

Chen Wei is kind and honest, and has always been the backbone of the Chen family. His cousin Chen Weikui had no children and hoped that Chen Weijing would adopt his eldest son Chen Weigan to him. Chen Weiqian was round and strong. He liked to dance with swords and guns. He was good at Tai Chi Bazhen Boxing and had strong martial arts skills. He passed the martial arts examination in Huaiqing Mansion. The third son, Chen Weilin, and the second son, Chen Weixian, like reading as much as their father, and Chen Weijing deliberately cultivated them. The Chen family had a little savings, and Chen Weijing also had money from the government, so he set up a private school at home and asked his husband to teach. Children are sometimes playful, but Chen Weijing does not spoil them at all and requires her husband to educate them strictly.

8. Chen Weilin lived up to his father's upbringing. During the Jiaqing period, he also passed the Gongsheng Examination and was recommended by the government school as an imperial eunuch student with excellent results. Chen Weixian later also obtained the title of "Tao Zhilang". The two generations of Chen family's imperial eunuchs were famous and became a legend in the countryside.

9. During the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the "Tongzhi Rebellion" broke out in Gansu, where the Han and Hui ethnic groups killed each other. The war lasted for more than ten years. After the war subsided, beef noodles were lost in Lanzhou. During the reign of Guangxu, Chen Weijing was invited by friends in Lanzhou and sent his son Chen Weilin and grandson Chen Hesheng to Lanzhou to standardize beef noodle cooking skills, and also visited his friend the headmaster of Wuquan Academy. In order to keep the beef noodle seasoning recipe in mind, Chen Weijing cleverly embedded the 23 seasonings of beef noodles in the form of a family letter asking his children and grandchildren to return home safely, so that the descendants of the Chen family could pass it down from generation to generation. Chen Weijing passed on the beef noodle making skills to Ma Liuqi, a Dongxiang scholar, which is also a model of ethnic unity in the history of our country. Therefore, the history of Lanzhou beef noodles is the great integration of the Chinese nation after the collision of different regions, different cultures, different concepts, and different nationalities. It is the most proud part of Chinese civilization.

10. The story of the Chen family’s inheritance of beef noodles from three generations has become a good story in Lanzhou. Later, in order to keep this good story alive in history, the later headmaster of Wuquan Academy wrote an article himself: "Lanzhou beef noodles were made during the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty. Ma Liuqi of the Dongxiang tribe learned it from Chen Weijing, a native of Qinghua in Huaiqing Prefecture, and brought it to Lanzhou. Later generations Chen Hesheng and Ma Baozai standardized the standard of beef noodles with one clear, two white, three green, four red and five yellow." This is the official record of Lanzhou. Lanzhou Beef Noodles has become increasingly famous through the efforts of two generations of the Chen family.

11. Chen Hesheng died young. His elder brother Chen Xiesheng (1862-1936) inherited the tradition of his ancestors. He was highly respected and kind to others throughout his life. He served as the village leader and local water officer, and often coordinated disputes between neighboring villagers about water use, land boundaries, and roads. Chen Xiesheng organized villagers in the countryside many times and took the lead in donating money to build roads and temples. There are many records in the inscriptions and inlays of the Jade Emperor Temple. Chen Xiesheng has done many good deeds in his hometown. Not only does he often invite the elderly, pregnant women, and postpartum women in the same village to eat beef noodles and beef soup to nourish their bodies, but he also often buys delicious food for the children in the neighborhood and picks up hawkers during festivals or gatherings. Selling beef meatballs, stir-fried jelly, oil tea, etc., the children would gather around him and eat as much as they wanted, and then he would pay the bill, and he would enjoy it. The Qing government awarded him the "sixth grade official title". "Living in the fields recognizes beauty, plowing the fields for diligence, thinking about the fields to cultivate truth, harvesting the fields and doing good deeds." These are the four words that Chen Weijing left to his descendants.

The character that the Chen family pursues from generation to generation is to be honest and kind: if people are kind, good fortune may not come yet, but misfortune is far away. Chen Xiesheng, the fifteenth generation of the Chen family, requested future generations: "Be a righteous person, have a quiet heart, have kind thoughts, have a stable soul and dreams, do good deeds, have bodhicitta, and be aware of the gods and ghosts. With one thought, all things will be good; with one heart, all things will be good. Everyone celebrates; be compassionate and save others and yourself."

12. Chen Xiesheng’s eldest son Chen Quantian (alias Yangzhen 1882-1943) studied at Henan University during the Republic of China and served as director of the taxation bureaus in Pingxiang, Jiangxi and Zhoukou, Henan. Although he was an official, he was indifferent to fame and fortune throughout his life. Farming and studying passed down the family line, and repeatedly taught future generations to be kind to others and to give charity as a virtue. He also warned his children that "money, house and land can be lost at any time, but only knowledge and skills cannot be taken away by others."

13. Chen Wantong, the second son of Chen Quantian, lived from 1917 to 1997 (recorded in Boai County Chronicles). In 1938, he studied in Lanzhou to avoid the Japanese invaders. He graduated from the Medical Department of Gansu College (now Lanzhou University) and practiced medicine. After liberation, he served as the governor of Gansu Province. Director of the Provincial Health and Epidemic Prevention Station until retirement. Chen Wantong is a well-known gourmet in Gansu's medical and health circles. He once presided over the formulation of the health standards for Lanzhou beef noodles. He inherited the beef noodles and private kitchen cooking skills of his predecessors, and often invited colleagues from Lanzhou's science, education, culture and health system to his home to taste the delicious food.

14. Chen Wantong’s four sons are working in Lanzhou, Xinjiang and other places. The younger son Chen Jiuru is a retired engineer from the Lanzhou Association for Science and Technology and an electronics expert. He has served as president of the Gansu Electronic Musical Instrument Society and secretary-general of the Lanzhou Electronic Society. He is currently the executive director of the Gansu Chinese Traditional Culture Research Association. Influenced by his father since childhood, he has a good inheritance of beef noodles and Chen family's private dishes. He has inherited nearly a hundred kinds of sauce-braised products, fried, stir-fried, cooked and fried secret recipes of Chen family's various beef noodles, private dishes and other ancestral dishes.

15. In 2014, Qinyuanchun Hotel explored the origins of beef noodles and received strong support from news media such as Henan Business Daily, Jiaozuo Daily, and Jiaozuo Evening News, triggering a nationwide Lanzhou beef noodles The great discussion about the birthplace of Lanzhou beef noodles attracted Mr. Chen Jiuru to return to his hometown to attend a seminar on the birthplace of Lanzhou beef noodles, and announced the secret recipe for cooking beef noodles with meat soup.

16. Mr. Chen Jiuru is very grateful to the Jiaozuo Catering Industry Association and his hometown people for digging into the history of the Chen family. The beef noodles in clear soup are named "Suzhai Chenjia Beef Noodles", allowing people in the hometown to happily enjoy the traditional taste of more than 200 years ago. Two hundred years ago, Chen Weijing, the thirteenth generation of the Chen family, dedicated this bowl of noodles to the people of Lanzhou for free, which became a legend; two hundred years later, Mr. Chen Jiuru, a descendant of the Chen family, brought back this bowl of noodles and dedicated it to the people in his hometown. It has written a great mark on the traditional catering culture of fraternity. The selfless love of the Chen family is as profound as beef noodles. It touches the world and is famous throughout Huaichuan.