College student from Xinjiang hopes to turn nut cake into a well-known energy snack

Adili Memettur can thank a dispute that occurred two years ago over cake for giving him the drive that put him on the path to business success.

In 2012, a Uygur snack vendor was selling qiegao in Yueyang, Hunan province, when a Han Chinese man accused him of forcing him to buy too many snacks. A fight ensued, and the vendor's cart was damaged during the scuffle.

The man was ordered by authorities to pay the vendor 160,000 yuan ($25,616) in compensation for the damage, including 2,760 kilograms of qiegao. The incident sparked a discussion online, and some netizens expressed concerns over the price of qiegao.

Memettur, 23, is a senior at Changsha University of Science and Technology in Central China's Hunan province. He was born into a Uygur family in Kashgar, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, that has a long history of selling qiegao, also known as Xinjiang nut cake.

Aiming to quell those fears, Memettur and two of his Han Chinese friends, Jiang Jinya and Jiang Chunyang, began selling qiegao online last year. The three rented a house in Changsha, where they make the snack.

Memettur showed that he had the natural talent to make the nut cake, and his qiegao quickly gained popularity online. In May, the Chinese cuisine documentary A Bite of China, introduced qiegao in its second episode. As a result of the publicity, Adili's daily sales exceeded 100,000 yuan ($16,010) on May 3 and 4.

Memettur and his partners plan to set up a local store and have already rented a shop front. Memettur says he hopes he can turn qiegao into a well-known energy snack.

(China Daily 06/29/2014 page6)