"I heard the area had some special food that you didn't normally see in the city, so I became very interested in it and started to eat there regularly," he said.

Shi said that when business resumed on the street in March, he was finally able to savor paomo again, adding, "That really made my day."

After pandemic restrictions were lifted, tourists from across the country flocked to the street in numbers once more.

Yin Haixia, 39, who traveled from Xiaogan, Hubei province, for a one-week vacation in Xi'an, said she chose Huimin Street as her final stop.

"The tastes of the Hui community have become entwined with the abundant cultural resources in the area," she said.

"Some new food streets, such as Yongxingfang, have emerged in Xi'an in recent years. I have also been there, but there is no area like Huimin Street that is so rich in culture and community vitality."

Upscale neighborhood

Scraps of food used to be left on the ground in Huimin Street, but this is no longer the case, as several renovation projects have been carried out in the area in the past decade.

In April 2014, the Xi'an authorities started to renovate 12,000 small eateries throughout the city, including those on Huimin Street. As a result, cleanliness standards on streets selling food improved markedly.