Eight years ago the luosifen marketing strategists' main tactic was for restaurants to open throughout the country, particularly in first-tier cities. With government guidance entrepreneurs from Liuzhou were dispatched to Beijing, about 2,000 kilometers away, and opened more than 10 snail noodle shops in densely populated places such as Haidian and Chaoyang districts of the capital.

However, because these shops were small and sold luosifen only, their foul odor quickly filled the confined space, driving away many potential customers.

"Local delicacies often lose their souls if they leave their hometown,"Jia says.

To ensure the authentic Liuzhou flavor, many ingredients were flown to Beijing, which greatly increased operating costs.

However, it was Beijing's high rents that proved to be the biggest drag on the profit aspirations of the shops' managers. Jia said that many of the first batch of shops that opened in the capital, which had been regarded as something of a dry run, folded fairly quickly, and it was realized that using such outlets to promote luosifen was extremely inefficient.

After these setbacks in Beijing and in other cities policymakers in Liuzhou cottoned on to the idea that bagged noodles that could be consumed in the home were the way to go.