Trending · Food
Hangzhou bakery’s wood-fired bread now has a wait of at least a year
面包店下单 吃到要等1年
A small kiln bakery in Hangzhou’s Linping district makes about 60–70 loaves a day, and online orders placed now will not arrive for at least a year.
In short
Gulu Ye · Xinmu Shao, a wood-fired bakery on Tinglan Street in Linping, Hangzhou, is still sending out loaves ordered in September 2025, Chao News reported on 1 November 2026. Its owner, a baker born after 1995, says he and an apprentice can make only two or three batches a day, about 60–70 loaves, and denies using scarcity as a marketing trick.
A bakery that was never meant to scale
The bakery’s owner, known by the name Gulu Ye, is a baker born after 1995 with more than ten years’ experience. His workshop opened in 2022 and for almost a year barely sold to the public; most of the bread went to neighbours and friends.
A visit by a food blogger later brought a rush of orders. The waiting time grew from about a month to half a year, and is now at least a year. “We are still sending out last September’s orders,” the owner told the Chao News app.[2][3][4]
Why it is slow
The bread is baked in a small, custom-built wood-fired kiln that runs at 400°C or more. Each batch takes more than two hours: the first comes out at about 2 pm and the second after 4 pm. The owner and his apprentice manage two or three batches a day, about 60–70 loaves, which he calls the limit.
Customers book online. Payment is held by a third-party mini-programme platform and passed to the shop only after the customer confirms delivery, and the shop phones each buyer to arrange collection or courier delivery. Bread sent by courier needs to be re-heated and is best eaten within three days.[2][3][4]
“Hunger marketing”?
Some online commenters have accused the shop of “hunger marketing” (饥饿营销), the Chinese term for deliberately limiting supply to create buzz. The owner said capacity really is limited and that customers who cannot wait can have a refund. “There’s no need to help promote us. We honestly can’t keep up,” he said, adding that the shop’s popularity was less about how good the bread is than about catching a wave of online attention.
Wood-fired kiln bread has been a social-media trend in China for some time, with many such bakeries set up in villages and on city outskirts. A November 2024 industry article cited this Linping bakery as an example, reporting that its bookings then ran about 20 days ahead and that some loaves sold for over ¥100.[3][4][5]
Sources
- Baidu Hot Search (2 November 2026, in Chinese) · accessed 2 Nov 2026
- Chao News via The Paper, Hangzhou bakery orders take a year to arrive; owner responds to ‘hunger marketing’ claims (1 November 2026, in Chinese) · accessed 2 Nov 2026
- The Paper, Hangzhou bakery still sending out last September’s orders (1 November 2026, in Chinese) · accessed 2 Nov 2026
- China.com, citing Chao News: Bakery orders take a year to eat (1 November 2026, in Chinese) · accessed 2 Nov 2026
- Foodaily, reprinting Vista Qingshangye: wood-fired kiln bakeries (22 November 2024, in Chinese) · accessed 2 Nov 2026
Picked from Baidu’s public hot-search list and checked against the reports above. Suggest a correction