Ants Climbing a Tree 蚂蚁上树 @ Taiyuan

This noodle shop was recommended by my DiDi (China’s equivalent of Uber) driver. Shanxi is famous for noodles, and this one is special.

Nicknamed the capital of noodles in China, Shanxi has more variations of the humble dish than the rest of China combined (exaggeration on my part). “Mayi Shangshu” 蚂蚁上树, aka “Ants Climbing a Tree”, is a newcomer in the competitive noodles market in Taiyuan, Shanxi. And it doesn’t even serve the traditional Shanxi-style noodles.

Founder/Owner/Chef Han Yueqing 韩月清 combined the characteristics of Szechuan Dan Dan Noodles, Wuhan Dry Spicy Noodles, and Beijing Fried Sauce Noodles (aka zhajiang noodles), combined with local hand kneeded wheat flour noodles to come up with the signature “Ants Climbing a Tree” noodles.

“Ants Climbing a Tree” refers to the classic Szechuan specialty of mung bean noodles poured with minced meat sauce where the meat clings to the noodles like ants on a tree. Chef Han used the same concept to pour the meat sauce onto thick boiled noodles.

The sauce is a combination of Szechuan Dan Dan noodles and Beijing fried sauce noodles, adjust in terms of proportion of fat and lean meat, as well as the consistency of the sauce. One concession, there’s tahini sauce 芝麻酱 in the final product as the chef finds this ingredient blends surprisingly well with the really savoury sweet bean sauce 甜面酱.

But unlike the Beijing and Szechuan noodles, this noodles is serve piping hot as Shanxi natives love their noodles hot. And just like fried sauce noodles, you need to mix it up good, so that every strand of noodles is coated with the delicious, savoury sauce. And to make it cling to the noodles, Chef Han made the sauce to have the consistency of Wuhan Dry Spicy Noodles which aids the sauce to cling to the noodles.

Besides noodle dishes, they also sell different small appetiser dishes and stir-fry dishes. This was a small portion of three types of braised meat (pork ears, salted belly and beef jerky) that I ordered to go with my cold beer.

These side dishes were so good that I couldn’t bear to leave the leftovers behind. I took all them back to the hotel for later.

This 20 year old eatery is one of the surprising finds I had during this month-long holidays across China. I have been trying a lot of local shops and restaurants, gourmands vote with their feet. This shop is very popular – within minutes after opening, the online orders kept coming. The owner was very friendly, and we chatted about noodles, F&B differences in Singapore and Shanxi. I had a really great meal. All thanks to a DiDi driver.

Ants Climbing A Tree Noodle Shop 韩月清蚂蚁上树面馆
No. 289 Xinjian Road, Yingze District, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province 山西太原迎泽区新建路289号

Visited Oct 2025