Although Chinese snack foods are almost unheard of outside of the country, some native dishes from southeast China's Shaxian county have made a big splash domestically with the opening of several "Shaxian snack bars" in major cities.

Eleven years ago, Lin Kaiming and his wife traveled from Shaxian, located in Fujian province, to the city of Zhanjiang in southern Guangdong province to open their first Shaxian snack bar. Although they had to work nearly 20 hours a day in the beginning, their returns were satisfactory.

Liu's success is just one example of the 60,000 Shaxian natives who have opened snack bars in China, as well as in the U.S., Japan, Germany, Australia and Singapore.

"The Shaxian snack bars produce an annual turnover of more than 5 billion yuan and a net income of more than 700 million yuan," said Huang Songfu, president of the Shaxian Snacks Guild.

The local government in Shaxian has made efforts to help the snack food industry flourish.

"To increase the employment rate and incomes for local residents, the Shaxian government has always played an active role in promoting Shaxian snacks," said Zheng Xingjing, director of the Shaxian Snack Bureau. Zheng said the bureau, established in 1997, is the first and perhaps only one of its kind in the entire country.

Guan said he intends to boost the industry to a new level by starting a listed company to act as a "carrier" for Shaxian snacks, a goal that Huang said can be realized by incorporating large private snack food chains, as well as processing and supply companies.

"Shaxian snacks bear the dreams of all of Shaxian's people," said Le Rongguang, deputy magistrate of Shaxian county. "We have spared no efforts to foster the industry's growth."

沪江英语快讯：沙县小吃，遍布全国，恐怕没有人没有吃过吧？如今，沙县小吃已在全国开设了2万多家分店，解决了当地6万多农民的就业，年营业额超过50亿元，净收入约7亿元。现在，沙县小吃更是走向世界，在美国、日本、德国、澳大利亚和新加坡都开了分店。谁说沙县小吃就不能成为中国的麦当劳呢？