Yǐn yán: Yáng jiǎo dòu gàn, yù zhì qiān céng; chì zhe yǒu wèi, sù zhě shēng xiāng. — Yangjiao dried bean curd, pressed in a thousand layers; the braised ones carry flavour, the plain ones give off fragrance.
Yangjiao dried bean curd (羊角豆干, Yángjiǎo Dòugān) is the travel-food of Wulong — the thing visitors buy by the string at the bus station and the Fairy Mountain gate, and one of the older brand names in the Chongqing dried-tofu trade. It comes from Yangjiao town, on the old river-and-road route along the Wujiang, where the bean-curd makers built a reputation on pressing the curd firm, cutting it in thin sheets, and braising it in spiced soy until it could survive a day’s journey in a cloth bag. The genre has two registers: plain (五香-free, eaten for the bean’s own fragrance) and braised, dark and lacquered with spice.
Locals buy by weight from the open trays, not by the packaged string — the packaged version is the souvenir register, the tray version is what people actually eat with tea. The braised kind keeps for days; the plain kind should be eaten the same week. It is the standard accompaniment to a pot of tea on the Fairy Mountain plateau, and the standard answer to what to bring home from Wulong that is not a ticket stub.
flowcloud would say that the test of a mountain snack is whether it survives the journey home — and Yangjiao bean curd has been passing that test since before there were roads.
Where to find it: by the string at the bus station and the Fairy Mountain gate, or by weight from the open trays — the trade’s home is Yangjiao town on the old Wujiang route. All checked October 2026.
Words and Names
羊角豆干 Yángjiǎo Dòugān — Yangjiao dried bean curd · 羊角镇 Yángjiǎo Zhèn — Yangjiao town, the product’s home on the Wujiang route · 五香 wǔxiāng — the five-spice family of braising aromatics · 豆干 dòugān — dried/pressed bean curd, firmer than fresh tofu · 乌江 Wūjiāng — the Wujiang, the old travel corridor the snack grew up on