THE fireworks stopped and the traffic jams began when China returned to work yesterday, families going their separate ways after a final meal of sticky rice dumplings to mark the Lantern Festival that ends the 15-day lunar new year holiday.

Under a full moon, families preserved a 2,000-year-old tradition by gathering round the dinner table to chew their way through a steaming bowl of glutinous rice balls.

Swaddled in padded cotton coats, Wang Run and her mother were among thousands of Beijingers who queued for half an hour in freezing temperatures to buy a bag at the renowned Daoxiang Store. “It’s worth it,” she said. “You have to eat ‘yuanxiao’ because it represents the togetherness of the family.”

The yuan of yuanxiao means a circle and represents the fullness of the moon and the completeness of the family.

Ms Wang was happy to queue because she was confident a well-known shop would not try to flout food safety rules, a big temptation in get-rich-quick China.

Jiao Qi, the store’s vice general manager said: “The city food inspectors have checked all our procedures and our hygiene methods. We, of course, meet the standards.”

Workers in white coats and caps make the balls at the front of the shop, spinning hundreds at a time in pale green vats. Fine, snow-white rice flour hovers in the air, dusting every surface. Small squares of different flavoured fillings are thrown into a vat, gathering layers of flour as they tumble round until they double in size and are ready for cooking.

Buyers pay 95p a pound for the dumplings. Flavours range from the traditional sesame and cassia flowers to newfangled sweet tomato paste, chocolate and rose. Mr Jiao said: “Consumers want something different every year. They don’t just want the rice balls to be tasty, they want them to be fashionable.”

Mr Jiao sold about 70 tonnes of yuanxiao this year — that is 4.2 million rice balls. He boasts that his rice powder taps into a new-found environmental awareness among Chinese consumers. The grains are soaked for five hours and ground for 24 hours in traditional stone mills. Everything is hand-made. His customers seem appreciative. “I prefer to buy ‘green’ food,” one shopper said.

Green is a hot topic in China, which has suffered a series of food safety scandals in recent years. The Ministry of Health rates 70 per cent of meat, 51 per cent of confectionery and

30 per cent of bottled water as substandard. In 2004 there were 390,000 cases of fake or substandard food. About 70 per cent of China’s food manufacturers are private companies often ready to sacrifice hygiene in pursuit of profit.

But Beijing officials issued a reassuring report that 97 per cent of rice balls met safety standards. The younger generation may not care: they were saving up to buy chocolate and roses for a celebration that threatens to unseat the Lantern Festival — Valentine’s Day.

STICKY RICE DUMPLINGS

1 Mix half a cup of sugar with one cup of water until dissolved

2 Add three cups of glutinous rice flour, and knead to form a dough

3 Shape into small balls, then flatten, placing a small amount of bean paste in the centre

4 Gather the dough’s edges and fold over the filling

5 Roll into a ball and deep fry in peanut oil. Then drain on kitchen towel

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