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Qinghai

Qinghai · Map

At Ta’er Monastery, butter becomes a temporary sculpture. In the Hehuang valleys, painted clay, embroidery and temple murals hold other kinds of time. Northward, Qinghai Lake is crossed by fish and birds; westward, salt works and telescopes bring two different kinds of work to the Qaidam Basin. Farther south, painters, carvers, herders and river patrols bring the headwaters into view through particular places and tasks. Follow the material, the water or the work: each route opens another Qinghai.

Qinghai
Xining Haidong Haibei Huangnan Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Golog Yushu Haixi

Selected waterways · simplified geography

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From the journal

From Barley to Mijiu: One Danma Workshop’s Brewing Season

A 2022 report from Jinzhou Village describes a household mijiu workshop bringing out its first barley batch of the year, using boiled grain and solid-state fermentation.

1 min readHaidong
Original editorial schematic of the Danma workshop account: barley, boiling and solid-state fermentation. It is not a photograph or a complete brewing recipe.
Original editorial schematic of the Danma workshop account: barley, boiling and solid-state fermentation. It is not a photograph or a complete brewing recipe.

The first batch of the year

In July 2022, brewer Qin Chengyong and his wife Zhang Shihua brought out their first batch of barley mijiu of the year at their workshop in Jinzhou Village, Danma Town. Around the village grew rapeseed, wheat, broad beans and potatoes. Grain production and the family’s clear spirit occupied the same working landscape.

Qin described a method beginning with boiled barley, followed by solid-state fermentation. He named Longwang Mountain spring water as part of the family’s practice. Grain, heat, fermentation and water each had a place in the workshop’s brewing season.

A family workshop in the Hehuang region

Huzhu's mijiu industry also included licensed barley-spirit companies and small workshops. A 2021 county report described local standards and industry development; the 2022 report located Qin and Zhang in Jinzhou Village, one household within the wider Hehuang food culture. Their first batch gives the industry a specific date and address: July, Danma Town.

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  1. Original editorial schematic of the Danma workshop account: barley, boiling and solid-state fermentation. It is not a photograph or a complete brewing recipe.© 2026 IFreeing · Rights information Photo source ↗ Proportionally resized and converted to WebP without cropping. No objects were added, removed or reconstructed.