Shanghu Lake Park is a must-see in Changshu city. Zhou Xiaoming / Asia News Photo

Shanghai's residents are increasingly spending their weekends in the more easy-paced neighboring city of Changshu in Jiangsu province, drawn to its fresh air, stunning mountains and delicious foods.

In Changshu, a visitor's typical day could begin with a breakfast of xun oil noodles at small restaurants that surround the Xingfu Temple, where locals tend to gather from 6 am. Xun is a gray-colored wild epiphytic fungus that grows at the foot of pine trees on Yushan Mountain that overlooks the city.

The locals gather the fungi mostly in spring or autumn and let the rains nourish them at other times.

After skinning the pellicles and washing the fungi, the cook usually soaks them in salted water for a few hours. The noodles are separately boiled in oil along with other ingredients before the fungi sauce is poured over them. Xun is fresh, tender, a bit chewy and nutritious.

During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), monks at the Xingfu Temple established the tradition of eating xun oil noodles and drinking green tea from leaves that also grew on Yushan Mountain, according to the local tourism bureau.

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