Bai · snack
Rushan (Bai Cheese)
乳扇 · Rǔshàn
Cow's-milk cheese, fan-shaped, eaten grilled with sugar or rolled with rose petal jam. Bai-minority Dali speciality.
Rushan ('milk fan') is a Bai-minority fresh cheese from Dali in Yunnan, one of the few traditionally produced cheeses in Chinese food culture and an anomaly in a culinary tradition that largely does not include dairy fermentation. The Bai people of the Erhai Lake basin have kept cattle for milk production for over a thousand years — an unusual practice in the broader Han Chinese context, where pastoral nomadic food cultures were geographically separated from the farming heartland.
The cheese is made by adding a souring agent (typically acidic whey or sometimes a citrus juice) to fresh cow's milk, then working the curd in hot water — a technique similar to mozzarella production — and stretching it into thin fan-shaped sheets around a bamboo stick while still warm. The finished piece is pale yellow-white, pliable when fresh, and dries firm within hours. The flavour is mild and lactic, without the sharp fermented notes of aged European cheeses.
Eating: held on a bamboo stick over charcoal, grilled until the outside blisters and browns, then sprinkled with sugar, chilli powder, or flavoured sauces. The warming makes the interior briefly gooey before it sets again. Alternatively rolled around rose petal jam or red bean paste as a sweet street snack.
Sold from carts throughout Dali Old Town and the Erhai Lake villages — Shuanglang, Xizhou and Shaxi all have rushan vendors. Outside Yunnan, rushan is essentially unavailable.
Where to try
Dali Old Town, Xizhou, the Erhai Lake area. Rare outside Yunnan.
Dietary notes
Dairy.
Regional variants
Dali Bai-minority original — hand-pulled strips of fermented cow-milk cheese grilled over charcoal. Lijiang Naxi version — softer and less firm than the Dali style. The deep-fried tourist version known as rushan bing is a modern innovation aimed at visitors rather than a traditional Bai preparation. Erhai lakeside versions in villages such as Shuanglang and Xizhou include a rose-jam glaze applied after grilling.
Where the name comes from
乳扇 rǔ shàn — 'milk fan' — named for the fan-like shape of the pulled cheese as it is stretched around a bamboo stick. The Bai minority tradition of dairy consumption predates Han Chinese cheese culture and sits outside the wider Chinese food tradition. The technique likely came from Central Asian trade contacts on the Ancient Tea Horse Road that ran through Dali between Yunnan and Tibet.
Pairings
Served with a sweet rose-petal jam — the traditional Dali topping — or with sugar and sesame seeds for a simpler snack version. Drink pairings are Yunnan Menghai green tea or Bai ceremonial rice wine. Rushan is usually eaten as a street snack from a bamboo skewer rather than plated as a formal dish; vendors in Dali Old Town grill it to order alongside other Bai snacks.
Where to learn to cook it
Dali Bai-minority cooking classes cover the full process. The fermentation of the milk to create the base cheese takes 24-48 hours and uses acidic whey as the souring agent. The hand-pulling technique — stretching the warm curd around a bamboo stick — determines the finished texture and is the hardest step to learn. YouTube coverage is limited; Bai cuisine channels exist but are sparse compared with mainstream Chinese cooking content.
Common misconceptions
Cheese is not a mainstream Chinese ingredient — rushan is specifically a Bai and Yunnan tradition, unusual in the wider Chinese food world and not representative of Han cuisine. The 'fan' in the name refers to the shape of the stretched sheet, not to any cooling function. Modern Dali tourist versions often use commercial cheese that differs in texture and flavour from the traditional Bai product made from fresh Erhai-basin cow's milk.
Cities to try Rushan (Bai Cheese)
Other southwest dishes
- Baba Flatbread粑粑
Yunnan's daily flatbread — a thick wheat or rice-flour round cooked on a griddle and eaten plain or stuffed.
- Bang Bang Chicken棒棒鸡
Cold poached chicken shredded by hand, dressed in chilli oil, sesame paste and Sichuan peppercorn.
- Boiled Fish in Chilli Oil水煮鱼
Fish slices submerged in a deep pool of chilli oil and Sichuan peppercorns. Served bubbling.
- Chongqing Hotpot重庆火锅
The original mala hotpot — a simmering cauldron of beef tallow, Pixian doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorn for communal dipping.