''Bing'' () is a
wheat flour
Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of common wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ...
-based
Chinese bread with a flattened or disk-like shape. These foods may resemble the
flatbreads,
pancake
A pancake, also known as a hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack, is a flat type of batter bread like cake, often thin and round, prepared from a starch-based Batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk, and butter, and then cooked on a ...
s,
pies and unleavened
dough
Dough is a malleable, sometimes elastic paste made from flour (which itself is made from grains or from leguminous or chestnut crops). Dough is typically made by mixing flour with a small amount of water or other liquid and sometimes includes ...
foods of non-Chinese cuisines. Many of them are similar to the Indian
roti
Roti is a round flatbread originating from the Indian subcontinent. It is commonly consumed in many South Asian, Southeast Asian, Caribbean, East African, and Southeast African countries.
It is made from stoneground whole-wheat flour, kno ...
, French
crêpe
A crêpe or crepe ( or , , ) is a dish made from unleavened batter or dough that is cooked on a frying pan or a griddle. Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: ''sweet crêpes'' () or ''savoury galettes'' (). They are often served ...
s, Salvadoran
pupusa, or Mexican
tortilla, while others are more similar to cakes and cookies.
The term is
Chinese but may also refer to flatbreads or cakes of other cultures. The crêpe and the
pizza
Pizza is an Italian cuisine, Italian, specifically Neapolitan cuisine, Neapolitan, dish typically consisting of a flat base of Leavening agent, leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomato, cheese, and other ingredients, baked at a high t ...
, for instance, are referred to as ''keli bing'' (可麗餅) and ''pisa bing'' (披薩餅) respectively, based on the sound of their Latin names, and the
flour tortilla is known as ''Mexican thin bing'' (墨西哥薄餅), based on its country of origin.
Types
''Bing'' are usually a casual food and generally eaten for lunch, but they can also be incorporated into formal meals. Both
Peking duck and
moo shu pork are rolled up in thin wheat flour ''bao bing'' with scallions and
sweet bean sauce or
hoisin sauce
Hoisin sauce is a thick, fragrant sauce originating in China. It features in many Chinese cuisine, Chinese cuisines, but is most prominent in Cantonese cuisine. It can be used as a glaze (cooking technique), glaze for meat, an addition to stir fr ...
. ''Bing'' may also have a filling such as ground meat. ''Bing'' are commonly cooked on a skillet or griddle although some are baked.
Some common types include:
*''
Cong you bing'' (蔥油餅; scallions and oil ''bing'')
*''
Fa mian bing'' (發麵餅; yeast-risen ''bing'')
*''
Laobing'' (烙餅; pan fried ''bing'')
*''
Chun bing'' (春餅; spring pancake), a thin, Northern bing traditionally eaten to celebrate the beginning of spring. Usually eaten with a variety of fillings.
*''
Shaobing'' (燒餅; baked ''bing'')
*
Donkey burgers, a type of ''shaobing'' stuffed with meat
*''
Jianbing'' (煎餅; fried egg pancake, similar to
crepes), a popular breakfast streetfood in China.
*''
Bó bǐng'' (
薄 饼; literally "thin pancakes"), a thin circular crepe-like wrapper or "skin" (薄餅皮) wrapping various fillings. This is sometimes called "Mandarin pancake" or "moo shu pancake" (木须饼, mù xū bǐng) in
American Chinese food contexts.

*''Luóbo si bing'' (萝卜絲餅, shredded radish bing), a type of panfried bing consisting of a wheat dough skin filled with shredded radish
*''
Rou jia bing'' (肉夹饼), also called ''
rou jia mo'' refers to a ''bing'' that is sliced open and filled with meat, typically stewed pork or lamb meat. Some variants, such as ''niu rou jia bing'' (腊牛肉夹馍) use sesame bread and are filled with beef meat and pickled carrots and daikon, similar to a
banh mi.
*''
Hé yè bǐng'' (荷叶饼; a foldable ''bing'' made to represent a lotus leaf), used to accompany many rich meat stuffings and popularized by the
gua bao, a variation with red-cooked pork belly.
*''Jin bing'' (筋饼) is a layered ''bing'' that is made with high-gluten flour (''jin'' (筋) meaning gluten) popular in Northern China. It is also known as ''zhua bing'' (抓饼) since its layers can be grabbed (''zhua (抓)'' meaning grab) at with hands.
*''
Guokui'' (锅盔), from
Shaanxi
Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...
*''
Hujiao bing'' (胡椒餅), made with
black pepper
Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...
The ''Yuèbǐng'' (月餅;
mooncake
A mooncake () is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節). The festival is primarily about the harvest while a legend connects it to moon watching, and mooncakes are regarded as a delicacy. ...
s), whilst sharing the name bing, is really a baked sweet pastry usually produced and eaten at the
mid-autumn festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival (for other names, see § Etymology) is a harvest festival celebrated in Chinese culture. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar with a full moon at night, corresponding to mid- ...
. Some other dessert bings are "Wife" cake (老婆饼), which contains winter melon, and the sweetened version of 1000 layer cake (千层饼) which contains
tianmianjiang, sugar, and
five spice or
cinnamon
Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...
.
''Bing''s are also eaten in other East Asian cultures, the most common being the Korean ''
Jeon'' () which often contain seafood.
In Japan, the character 餅 usually refers to ''
mochi
A mochi ( ; Japanese ) is a Japanese rice cake made of , a short-grain Japonica rice, japonica glutinous rice, and sometimes other ingredients such as water, sugar, and cornstarch. The steamed rice is pounded into paste and molded into the ...
'' (glutinous rice cakes), but is also used for some other foods including ''
senbei'' () rice crackers, written with the same characters as but quite different from
jianbing. Most Japanese ''bing''-type cooked wheat cakes, both sweet and savoury, are instead called ''yaki'' (), as in
dorayaki,
taiyaki,
okonomiyaki, etc.
File:Jinyun Shaobing sold from Huangdao Service Area (20191004135437).jpg, Jinyun-style '' shaobing''
File:Food (40528887634).jpg, Wrapped ''bing''
File:Donkey sandwich, Hejian style (20160220143311).jpg, Donkey burgers
File:Pot-helmets-2511801 1920.jpg, '' Guokui''
File:VM 5574 Lanzhou market Dongxiang ganmian da bing.jpg, ''Dongxiang dabing'' in Lanzhou
Lanzhou is the capital and largest city of Gansu province in northwestern China. Located on the banks of the Yellow River, it is a key regional transportation hub, connecting areas further west by rail to the eastern half of the country. His ...
File:GuanBingG.JPG, ''Guang bing'' in Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...
File:Dan Bing (Taiwanese egg crepe).jpg, Taiwanese egg ''bing''
File:Fennel pie at Huatian Eryouju, Maliandao (20220214134542).jpg, Fennel
Fennel (''Foeniculum vulgare'') is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized ...
''bing''
See also
References
{{Chinese bread
Chinese breads
Flatbreads