In the streets and alleys of Qingdao, those time-honored brands that carry the memory of the city are quietly being revitalized.
From the collective “homing” of the Dabaodao historic district to the intangible heritage and cross-border breakthroughs of Zhengzhuang Zhaizha, from the continuation of the national sentiment of Qingshi Calcium Milk Biscuits to the business innovation of Taitung Hardware Store, Qingdao’s time-honored brands have adopted the attitude of “preserving their crafts and never forgetting innovation”. While adhering to the original intention of quality, they actively embrace the consumer demand of the new era. Through cultural empowerment, product iteration, channel innovation and scene reconstruction, century-old brands can regain their luster in the wave of urban renewal and cultural tourism integration.
Data show that the total revenue of Qingdao time-honored brands will reach 87.814 billion yuan in 2024, accounting for nearly one-third of the province. The three-tier system composed of 79 Qingdao time-honored brands, 23 Chinese time-honored brands, and 21 Shandong time-honored brands is becoming an important force in promoting urban consumption upgrades and cultural dissemination.
A mouthful of grease, the ingenuity and innovation of intangible cultural heritage
In the revitalization map of Qingdao’s time-honored brands, the development trajectory of Zhengzhuang Zhizha is particularly eye-catching.
With more than 30 years of brand development, Zhengzhuang Zhizha has become a provincial intangible cultural heritage food brand. Under the leadership of the fourth generation successor Lu Junzhong, with “integrity” as its soul and “craftsmanship” as its backbone, it has completed a gorgeous transformation from street snacks to cultural symbols, and has become a model of “keeping integrity and innovation” for a time-honored brand.
Lu Junzhong has been immersed in the aroma of fat residue since he was a child, and became interested in the craftsmanship of making fat residue at the age of 16.
In 1993, he officially founded the Zhengzhuang Zhizha brand on the basis of inheriting the skills of his ancestors, starting the road to brand development.
“Quality is the lifeline of the brand.” This is the belief that Lu Junzhong has always adhered to, and the core of this quality comes from the persistence and continuous optimization of the “refining” process.
“Our fat residue is non-fried and relies on ‘㸆 refining’ – low-temperature and slow refining, the temperature is controlled below 140°C, a little base oil is added, and the fat is slowly forced out by the meat’s own fat, which can retain the protein to the maximum extent and reduce the fat content, making it crispy and not greasy when eaten.” Lu Junzhong said.
In 2003, Zhengzhuang Fat Residue entered the stage of factory-based standard production from a small workshop, further laying a solid foundation for quality.
“There are strict data requirements for the thawing temperature and the temperature of the pot, and it is almost impossible. The factory must have four tools: a ruler, a thermometer, a gram scale, and a timer. A pot of fat residue must be full for 40 minutes, and it will not be out of the pot before the time is up to ensure that the quality of each batch of products is consistent.” Lu Junzhong told reporters.
This ultimate pursuit of standardization has allowed Zhengzhuang Zhizha to win many honors: from 2020 to 2024, it was successively awarded Licang District-level and Qingdao Municipal-level intangible cultural heritage and “Qingdao Time-honored Brand”; in 2024, it was promoted to Shandong Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage; in July 2025, it was selected as “Shandong Province Landmark Food”.
“These honors are not the end, but a reminder that we cannot destroy the ‘Zhengzhuang Zhizha’ sign.” Lu Junzhong always adheres to the brand concept of “being honest and doing things with heart” throughout the whole process.
In terms of sales channel and scene innovation, Zhengzhuang Zhizha has embarked on a unique path.
In the early days of its establishment, the brand was mainly sold through supermarkets, but it encountered problems such as lack of “people-friendly” prices and difficulty in controlling the quality of bulk products.
In 2005, Lu Junzhong opened a 200-square-meter Zhengzhuang Zhizha shop, which was made and sold on-site. It quickly gained popularity with its fresh taste. Since then, with the support of relevant departments in Licang District, a nearly 7,000-square-meter “Zhengzhuang Zhizha Seafood House” has been built.
Zhengzhuang Fatty Seafood Restaurant not only solved the problem of sales scene, but also became a “test field” for product innovation. New products such as Fatty Pot, Fatty Tofu, Fatty Steamed Buns and other new products were launched one after another, all of which became popular items.
Faced with the trend of young consumer groups becoming the mainstream of the market, Zhengzhuang Zhizha took the initiative to launch a “younger” innovation.
The traditional fat cakes are packaged as snacks, and new products such as spicy flavors are launched to meet the convenient and diversified needs of young people.
Collectively “return to the nest” to gather energy on Dabao Island
As the earliest commercial center in Qingdao, the Dabaodao area of Shibei District took the lead in renovating the historical city and became the first choice for the collective “returning” of time-honored brands.
Nowadays, century-old stores such as Ruifuxiang and Yingjilou have been transformed and upgraded, and time-honored brands such as Fo Tao Brand Sorghum Jelly, Daegu Dabao, Gaojia Tangqiu, and Wang Jie BBQ have gathered in the “Baodao Shili” food street to promote the revival of traditional business culture and give the old city a unique charm.
Last summer, the “Founder of Ruifuxiang” plaque was hung at No. 6 Jimo Road, marking the opening of a new chapter for this 120-year-old brand in Qingdao.
For more than a century, “Ruifuxiang” went through wars and business changes, and fell silent for a time.
Today, Meng Luochuan’s great-great-grandson Meng Qinggang has returned to the old location to start his own business. The new store is positioned as an “immersive cheongsam experience center” and relies on the cultural heritage of Dabao Island to expand its development space.
There is a study space on the second floor of the store, which offers courses such as cheongsam buckle making and traditional jewelry design. The store also plans to create a retro space from the Republic of China to allow young people to experience the century-old story behind cheongsam.
Gaojia Tangqiu, which started in 1926, has built a memory hall at No. 78 Zhifu Road that integrates display, experience and sales. The fourth generation descendant, Gao Shixiang, adheres to the ancient sugar-cooking technique, making the sugar ball a taste link between the past and the present.
Founded in 1986, Wangjie BBQ has become a representative brand in Qingdao’s barbecue field with its unique grilling techniques and strict selection of ingredients. Its grilled squid and mutton skewers have been rated as Shandong famous snacks and Qingdao specialty snacks, carrying the common memories of local residents and tourists.
It is no accident that time-honored brands have settled on Dabao Island.
As the core carrier of the protection and renewal of the historical city of Shibei District, it not only retains the courtyard spatial pattern of “front shops and back factories”, but also improves supporting facilities such as floating island parks. In 2024, it will achieve the dual empowerment of 17.65 million passenger flows and 16,000 square meters of new consumption scenarios.
“Baodao Shili” food street accurately grasps the positioning of “gathering time-honored brands and renewing local flavors” and provides a high-quality platform for “resource sharing, skill exchange, and customer mutual guidance”.
More importantly, the neighborhood warmth of “watching and helping each other” carried by the courtyard building highly resonates with the spiritual core of the time-honored brand of “passing on from generation to generation and operating with integrity”, allowing the time-honored brand to find both fertile ground for business operations and a spiritual home.
Cross-border “breaking the circle”, old brands play new styles
In the wave of renewal of Qingdao’s time-honored brands, cross-border innovation has become an important path.
Taitung Hardware Store and Qingshi Calcium Milk Biscuits broke through traditional boundaries in different ways, winning the favor of young consumers and demonstrating the diverse vitality of time-honored brands.
With a history of 89 years, Taitung Hardware Store is the only “Chinese time-honored brand” in the country’s hardware industry. Its predecessor was a large hardware store founded in 1936 and has gone through many restructurings.
In 2009, the new generation successor Zhao Yang took over the baton, knowing that time-honored brands need to jump out of their “comfort zone” to expand new customers.
As a coffee lover, she came up with the idea of “opening a coffee shop to attract young people” based on the store’s excellent location.
“Opening Screw Coffee is by no means a simple patchwork of business formats.” Zhao Yang said that he hopes to attract young customers through high-quality, cost-effective coffee, and at the same time improve the shopping experience by leveraging the social attributes of coffee shops.
In terms of decoration, the store retains the industrial style and incorporates modern comfort elements; in terms of product design, it combines hardware culture with coffee culture, and special products such as “Jack American” and “Tsingtao Beer American” have both creativity and local flavor.
Screw Coffee quickly became popular on social media after its opening, attracting many young people to check in, and also attracted many citizens to visit hardware stores, further increasing brand awareness.
Qingshi, founded in 1950, has always adhered to the old taste and high quality of calcium milk biscuits for 76 years. This national delicacy that has been eaten from toothless to toothless has remained at the forefront even in the fierce market competition.
In the era of mobile Internet, Qingshi has embarked on the road of “connecting to the Internet”: opening official flagship stores on Tmall, JD.com and other platforms, establishing a membership system and private domain traffic; logging into the leading live broadcast room and building its own live broadcast room, with single GMV of Douyin and Kuaishou exceeding 500,000 yuan; expanding the national market through experts visiting stores, topic planting and other methods, and the proportion of online revenue will increase to 12.25% in 2024.
Especially during the 2025 National Games, topics such as “Qingshi Calcium Milk Biscuits are the secret to Shandong people growing taller” sparked heated discussions across the Internet. Qingshi took advantage of the situation and launched the “Calcium World Heroes” themed advertisement to achieve a successful “out of the circle” and establish an emotional connection with Generation Z in a younger way.
The time-honored “Refresh Password”
Shen Jianji, rotating president of the Qingdao Time-honored Brand Enterprises Association, pointed out: “The value of Qingdao’s time-honored brands is a precious asset of the city’s history, a dazzling cultural symbol, and should become the trend of the times.” In the face of the marine cultural tourism boom and the organic renewal of historical districts, Qingdao’s time-honored brands have achieved sustained growth through the trinity of “culture + scene + policy” development path.
Xu Jingjun, a professor at the School of Management of Ocean University of China, believes that the renewal of time-honored brands is by no means “new for the sake of newness”, but should stick to the roots of traditional culture, add the wings of product innovation, base on the development of smart cities, and build a strong shield for property rights protection.
It is necessary to deeply explore brand cultural symbols and integrate them with modern elements; break through product boundaries and accurately capture the needs of young people; promote digital transformation, open up online and offline scenarios, and achieve deep value links with consumers.
Today, Qingdao’s time-honored brands are using their own practices to interpret the development concept of “inheriting without being conservative, innovating without forgetting the roots”.
These brands, which span decades or even centuries, not only carry the collective memory of the city, but also proactively embrace the changes of the times.
In the future, as more time-honored brands join the ranks of renewal, it will surely inject lasting cultural vitality into urban development, making Qingdao’s taste and memory of the old city more mellow and lasting as time goes by.
