China serves some of the best flour-based foods in the world; and Shanxi ranks first in China in preparing “flour foods”. Shanxi Province has a recorded history dating back more than 2,000 years of making wheat-flour food, due to bumper wheat harvests resulting partly from rich experience in cultivation. Shanxi province boasts nearly 1,000 kinds of flour foods, made with a wide variety of materials. In Shanxi, flour serves as a staple food, snack and even art.