Shiping Guild Hall (Shiping Huiguan)

Shiping Guild Hall (Shiping Huiguan) is a restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan province, that serves the regional cooking of Shiping, a county in southern Yunnan, in a setting styled on a traditional guild hall. Guild halls (huiguan) were the meeting houses that merchants from a given place built in cities away from home, and the restaurant draws on that tradition by presenting Shiping food to a Kunming audience. The address is No. 24 Zhonghe Lane, in the Cuihu South Road area of Wuhua District, close to Green Lake and the university district, which makes it convenient for visitors staying in the northwest of the old city. The kitchen is known for steam-pot chicken (qiguo ji), in which chicken is cooked in a lidded earthenware pot with a central chimney so that it steams in its own juices into a clear, intensely flavoured soup, and for Shiping tofu, a local specialty that is typically fried or grilled and eaten with a dipping seasoning. These two dishes are the best way to see what separates Shiping cooking from the more famous noodle-centred food of central Kunming. Sources quote an average of CNY 95-145 (about $14-21) per person, which puts the restaurant in the mid-price range for Kunming: noticeably more than a noodle shop, but modest by international standards. The dining room is better suited to shared meals than solo dining, because the dishes are served family-style and the steam-pot chicken is best ordered for two or more. A reservation is advised for dinner, particularly for groups and on weekends. Prices for individual dishes were not published, so visitors should check the menu before ordering. Opening hours were also not published in the sources consulted; as many Kunming restaurants close relatively early, an arrival before 20:00 is sensible. The restaurant works well as a dinner stop after an afternoon walk around Green Lake, and as a way to taste the cooking of a region of Yunnan that most visitors never reach.