In May the country's first snail noodle industry college opened at Liuzhou Vocational and Technical College, and this month the Liuzhou Snail Noodle Industry College conducted its first training program, with plans to recruit 500 students this year.

"Booming sales of snail noodles are no accident," Guo says. "It reflects changes in current consumer demand and changes in retail marketing."

Apart from the unique attributes of the product, the biggest reason for its success may be that it meets the current young generation's fast consumption needs, he says.

According to a report by the online shopping platform Taobao titled Slackers' Consumption Data, sales of easy-to-cook foods such as self-heating hot pot and barbecue grew 150 percent in 2018, and since then the prevalence of the so-called slackers' economy, in which young people in particular have no time or no inclination to cook, has accentuated this growth. Sixty percent of those who consume snail noodles are reckoned to be under the age of 40.

"In addition to the pursuit of convenience and live-streaming promotion by internet celebrities, the fall of traditional instant noodles is another reason for the success of luosifen," Guo of Beijing Technology and Business University says.

Sales of instant noodles fell by 7.7 billion bags, or 16.6 percent, between 2013 and 2016, he says.

"People's interest in traditional fried instant noodles has decreased. But the need to quickly solve the problem of eating has not disappeared. In the meantime, snail noodles that are delicious and slightly healthier than instant noodles have emerged as a new fast food."

Snail noodles are also attracting connoisseurs overseas. In the first half of this year Liuzhou Customs registered about 7.5 million yuan of luosifen exports, eight times the value of exports last year, Liuzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce says.

Wang Jing, a luosifen aficionado in Beijing, says: "I never imagined that snail noodles would one day become so popular throughout the country. Perhaps they've touched everyone's g-spot, exciting a gene that produces rebellion against traditional aesthetics."

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