Let's go back to Qin Dynasty(BC. 230-221). At that time, the first emperor of Qin Dynasty travelld to Guilin through the just-finished Ling Canal. "Wow,carp!carp!"the emperor shouted out unstoppably. True, thousands of fish gliding in the limpid water,you can even catch one with your hand if you like! Emperor's extremely excited and ordered his minister to web carps as many as he could. But emperor had a peculiarity that he only ate barbels and swim bladders of fish. You know, barbels and bladders are just parts of the fish, they're too small and hard to be collected.

After more and more fish had been killed, finally the Carp King angered. The Carp King was really anxious and planned to overturn the emperor's boat to kill him. Of course it's not wise to revenge, after all, the emperor is so powerful!Another solution came out, the Carp King grinded rice into liquid to make stuff like barbels and swim bladders. And that stuff is the ancestor of nowaday rice noodle. Luckily the emperor thought that it's "bravo" after eating them! The problem had been successfully solved owning to rice noodles. Numerous carps in the river were survived, so nowadays we still have a chance seeing plenty of carps swimming in the Ling Canal.

And, that's why Guilin rice noodles have two shapes: one is in shape of column imitating carp barbel, another in shape of slice imitating fish bladder. Both of them are yummy! Rice noodle is a must on Guilin food list, also a fantastic legend said by generations.