One of the main ingredients in sweet snacks and desserts is red bean. hough this may sound unfamiliar, red bean paste and red bean fillings are delicious. You'll certainly encounter this filling when in China, generally when you're expecting chocolate (due to the similarity in color). Red bean buns (doushabao doe-shaa-bough 豆沙包), are the popular sweet version of the baozi, or steamed bun, consisting of a steamed bun filled with red bean paste. These buns are the most popular way of presenting red bean paste. The buns come in a variety of different shapes and sizes, and are popular throughout the entire country, but especially popular in the North of China.

You can get them in a restaurant, steamed, in different shapes as shown above, or you can get them in the supermarket for on the go. There are also various variations of this bun with different fillings, think pine nut kernel paste, taro paste, or even black bean paste.