Feb 2 was Little New Year (Chinese: Xiaonian), which usually falls a week before the lunar New Year. It is also known as the Festival of the Kitchen God, the deity who oversees the moral character of each household.

People generally start to stock up on necessary provisions for the Spring Festival on Little New Year. Everything needed to make offerings to one’s ancestors, entertain guests, and feed the family over the long holiday must be purchased in advance. So, what are the essential Spring Festival goods for people in Qingdao, Shandong?

During the Spring Festival, people in Qingdao usually make huabobo, a type of steamed bun, symbolizing people’s hope for prosperity in the coming year. [Photo/WeChat account: qd12301]

As the saying goes, "On the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, dough is steamed and shaped into buns." Before the Spring Festival, people often make steamed buns, symbolizing their hope for prosperity in the coming year.

This tradition, known as huabobo, is a distinctive Spring Festival custom in Qingdao and a major part of the city's intangible cultural heritage. It is believed that many households in Qingdao have various wooden molds for shaping the buns.

The tradition embodies people's good wishes for the new year and their hopes for a prosperous and auspicious life.

This tradition is a distinctive Spring Festival custom in Qingdao and a major part of the city's intangible cultural heritage. [Photo/WeChat account: qd12301]

Qingdao is famous for its seafood, and one widely enjoyed delicacy in the Jiaodong region is sweet sun-dried fish. [Photo/WeChat account: qd12301]

Qingdao locals typically refer to air-dried fish made without adding salt as sweet sun-dried fish. The term "sweet sun-dried" does not mean that sugar is added without salt; rather, it refers to seafood products that are naturally air-dried without additional seasoning.

As one of Qingdao's specialties, Liuting pig's feet are combined with a variety of spices and secret ingredients. [Photo/WeChat account: qd12301]

In most regions, sausages are made in winter, and Qingdao is no exception. In recent days, as the weather turns cold, many street stalls are adorned with these savory and fatty delights.

Typically, these stalls provide a one-stop service for buying meat, seasoning, marinating, and sausage-making. Customers can also pay a processing fee to have their own meat processed. After about a week of outdoor drying, the sausages are ready to be eaten. They can be steamed with water in a pot or added to simmering rice for cooking.

The flavors are diverse, ranging from savory and slightly sweet to spicy, and are widely loved across the city.