China's long history of street food is at risk

 Shanghai-based journalist Siyuan Meng was buying some noodles when the lady selling them abruptly took off. To get more news about shanghai special dishes, you can visit shine news official website.

"I was at a street vendor, after I ordered the food, a few minutes later the lady handing over the food told me, 'Hey, be fast, they're coming' … and soon she was escaping away."

The vendor had heard that local enforcement officers, known as Chengguan, had been spotted nearby. It's a familiar scene in many of China's urban centres.

Many of China's street food vendors have found themselves in a "cat and mouse" game with local authorities. "It's pretty intense — because, technically, street food is banned in Shanghai," Ms Meng said. Strict regulations are making it harder for vendors to operate. They risk being shut down, fined or having their wares confiscated.

China's rapid modernisation has left the nation's street vendors fighting for survival in some parts, as authorities look to clean up city streets.

"There used to be many more street vendors in Shanghai or in China … I really don't want street vendors to disappear entirely," Ms Meng says. The variety of food you can find on China's streets is staggering, with each city and region home to its own favourites.

One that's quite popular here are these, like, steamed sandwiches, steamed buns, and then you put shredded or minced meat with spices inside," Ms Gouk said. Other common favourites include Chinese pancakes known as Jianbing, dumplings and noodles — while more exotic foods such as donkey burgers and scorpions can also be found.

Vendors also operate at all hours of the day, catering in particular to shift workers and late-night revellers in Shanghai. "I remember when I first moved to Shanghai in 2011, I saw a lot [of vendors] late at night outside clubs. These carts were massive and had every kind of skewer on the planet."

"It looked like mystery meat, but I ate it anyway," Ms Gouk said. However, getting your mystery meat fix is becoming harder and harder, particularly in cosmopolitan cities such as Shanghai. University of Macau associate professor of sociology Jianhua Xu is a researcher into street vending in the city of Guangzhou.

"The government tends to think there are lots of problems associated with hygiene, and the blocking of traffic, and also, sometimes, people complain about disorder in the street," he said.Professor Greenspan helped run a project called Moveable Feasts that mapped Shanghai's street food, and its decline.

"[In Shanghai] there's beautiful cocktail bars and beautiful restaurants, but I also just like to squat on the street and eat a bowl of noodles … and that is getting harder and harder," Professor Greenspan said.