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A little preparation. A much better adventure.Independent travel advice · Made for China
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A taste of Harbin

Qiulin Lidaosi red sausage counters

秋林里道斯

Not a restaurant but the shop you should visit, because Harbin red sausage is the city's single most distinctive food and this is its original maker. The Qiulin trading house was founded by the Russian merchant Ivan Yakovlevich Churin, opened in Harbin in 1900, and set up a sausage workshop in Daoli in 1909 producing a Lithuanian-style smoked sausage that locals shortened to 'red sausage'. The company still smokes over hardwood twice through a long multi-stage process; buy a length, a dalieba rye loaf and eat them on a bench.

¥40–80 per kilogram band not confirmed — see unverified≈ US$5.96Chinese time-honoured brand (中华老字号)Counters across Harbin including Daoli District and Central Avenue; confirm the branch
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Why come here

A place worth making time for

The original and documented producer of Harbin red sausage, with a company lineage back to 1900 and time-honoured brand status; a product, not an awarded restaurant.

The house favourites

What to order

Point at the Chinese. Staff will understand it even where the menu has no English at all.

  • Lithuanian-style red sausage (里道斯红肠)
  • Smoked loin sausage (茶肠)
  • Russian rye loaf, sold next door (大列巴)

What it actually tastes like

Dense, dry, heavily garlicked and strongly hardwood-smoked, eaten cold and uncooked. Nothing about the texture resembles a Western breakfast sausage.

Allergens in this kitchen

soygluten/wheat

This is the kitchen, not one dish. Woks, fryers, blanching water and utensils are shared in almost every Chinese restaurant, so for a serious allergy treat the whole premises as the unit rather than ordering around it.

Get to know the menu

Local specialities to try here

Dalieba Russian Bread 大列巴Crusty and hard outside, dense and chewy inside, with a distinct sour tang from the long ferment.