Beef balls are a famous Han snack in Chaoshan, Guangdong. Beef balls come from Hakka dishes of Han nationality. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, most of the vendors selling beef balls were Hakkas, carrying small burdens and peddling along the street in Shantou city. Especially at night, from the Bajiaoting of Handi Road to the Hanjiang River behind Zhongshan Park, there are often shuttle boats with a small light hanging from the bow, which sell supper for Hakka cargo ships parked there and make beef balls. In the 1940s, there were many food stalls on Xinxing Street. Since the reform and opening up, beef balls have become a famous dish in Chaoshan, especially beef balls with excellent ingredients and authentic taste.

Of course, there are some folklore about how beef balls spread from Hakka to Chaoshan. For example, some people say that in the early years of the Republic of China, there was a Chaoshan man whose real name was Ye Yanqing, and he often helped the Hakkas, so the Hakkas passed the recipe of this beef ball to Ye Yanqing. Ye Yanqing constantly improves the method of making this kind of beef balls, so the beef ball soup he sells is particularly famous in Chaoshan. After that, Ye Yanqing has been working in Hu Rongquan, a famous Chaoshan store.

In Chaoshan, there are many kinds of Chaoshan snacks, such as pork balls, pork belly balls, fish balls, Mo Dou balls and shrimp balls. They are all evolved from the method of making beef balls by hand in Chaoshan.