Recently, international students from countries including Madagascar, Mongolia, India and Nigeria visited Baihuazhou historical and cultural block in Jinan, east China's Shandong province, where they learned to make tofu using ancient techniques and enjoyed this traditional local food.

Arriving at Jinan Quanshui Tofu Museum, the international students were immediately attracted by two big millstones in front of the museum. They were curious about them since they had never seen these kind of tools before and tried to grind the mill.

Mr. Zhu, a staff member of the museum, took out some beans. The students rolled up their sleeves and took turns to grind the mill. After a while, they ground out soybean milk and had an initial experience of making beancurd.

Next, Mr. Zhu gave a brief introduction of the whole process of making tofu with spring water.

As the saying goes, "the three most laborious jobs in ancient times were punting, forging iron and making tofu". The students understood the connotation when starting to grind beans. The beans, having been soaked in spring water, must be ground at least four times. "It really needs patience," said Mariella, from Madagascar.

Then Mr. Li showed the international students how to filter the bean dregs. They poured the soybean milk into the filter net and slowly waggled it to filter. The soybean milk, after being boiled three times, was so fragrant that Ricardo said he wanted to have a bowl of it.

After listening to Mr. Li's explanation of the magic effect of brine, the foreign students became curious about the process of adding brine to the soybean milk. Brine can make the soybean milk coagulate, turning the soybean milk into beancurd jelly. Next, the beancurd jelly will first be put into a permeable gauze and squeezed, then it will be put into a wooden grinder and squeezed and after a period of time the beancurd will be formed.

"This is the first time for me to make beancurd. I think I did a good job and the beancurd is very delicious," said Stephen, from Nigeria, "It is a hard work but there is also a lot of fun. I think we should experience more traditional things in the future."