Cary’s annual Taste of China festival a feast for the senses returns Nov. 7

The 6th annual Taste of China Festival returns to Downtown Cary Park on Saturday, Nov. 7. 

The festival celebrates the rich foods and traditions of Chinese culture and is hosted by the Chinese-American Friendship Association of North Carolina (CAFA). The event is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Jianping Yang, director of the festival, said the event attracts between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors a year. There are over 80 vendors and 400 performers, most of whom are recruited via WeChat, and travel from out of state to participate. 

The product is a smorgasbord of Chinese dance, music, art, and of course, food. A lot of it. 

Yang recommended the dumplings, bao buns, and skewers. “I think most of the food we have now is not that extreme,” he said. “It’s not like in China. Here they know that if they sell that kind of thing, no one will buy it.” 

Last year, the festival fell on the morning after Halloween. The 5th Annual Taste of China Festival just started, and the line snaking through Downtown Cary Park was already long but moving quickly.

A 10-year-old boy was sitting on a park bench relishing a container of squid, chicken legs, and his favorite—chicken feet—as though it were chocolate. Between mouthfuls, he described the food as “soft, cold, and spicy.” 

Behind them, South Academy Street was dotted with food stands. At one booth, a teenage girl offered samples of "mouth-watering chicken," which she explained was not her own description, but the literal translation of the dish Kou Shui Ji.

Groups of people circled, eating off paper plates sagging under the weight of Jianbing guozi, a crispy egg dish that is neither pancake nor crepe, slightly greenish from mung bean, and brushed with sauce. One man said it is the only authentic Jiangbing guozi he has eaten in the U.S., and his girlfriend, who was from the dish’s origin-place of Tianjin, China, insisted it was worth the one-hour wait. 

A Fayetteville couple said they were there for the colorful costumes and photo opportunities. The woman said she thought she took nearly 800 photos.  

70-year-old Ellen was part of a Yangko, a traditional Chinese folk dance group. Many of the dancers wore braids down to their hips. Agile still, Ellen had been dancing Yangko since she was five or six years old. She said she only stopped for 10 years during the cultural revolution, when many traditional folk dances were replaced with revolutionary dances.

A Raleigh couple brought their two children, 4 and 2, to the festival to expose them to Mandarin.“I want my kids to learn Chinese," the mother said. She hopes to enroll her kids in one of the area’s Chinese language magnet programs. “I want my children to be prepared for the future.” 

Admission to the Taste of China festival is free.