Chang Zheng, 49, gets up at 6 am each morning to make lianggao, a sweetmeat with two layers of sticky rice and red bean paste in the middle. Before 7:30 am, more than 50 kilograms of lianggao are ready for sale.

"Many people like to buy a piece of lianggao as breakfast on their way to work," Chang said.

"It's slightly sweet and tastes like a sticky cake. I always want a piece of lianggao in the afternoon," said a customer surnamed Li, who lives near Chang's shop in Baoding, North China's Hebei province, and is a frequent customer.

"The rice needs to be first immersed in water for five to six hours, and then be boiled and steamed with controlled heat," Chang said. He makes the lianggao every day exactly following his father's recipe.

Chang started to make lianggao five years ago when his father died. "I think this is the best way to remember my father and I don't want to see the skill lost from my generation," Chang said.

Becoming a popular lianggao chef, he has made some new kinds of sweetmeats, including lyudagun, nian'gao, zhagao, zongzi and doubao, all similar in terms of stuffing but different in taste.

With a 21-year-old daughter in college, Chang said he hopes one day his daughter or someone else in the family will continue the skill when he is too old to keep doing it.