[Video produced by Shanghai Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Centre and Shanghai Ximeng Cultural Media Co]

A view of the popular snack wuxiangdou, or Five-Scented Beans, in Shanghai's City God Temple. [Photo/WeChat account: shhplyj]

Spiced beans are called wuxiangdou in Chinese, which literally means Five-Scented Beans.

There is a well-known saying in Shanghai: "A man who does not eat Five-Scented Beans at City God Temple has not truly been to Shanghai."

The saying gives some clues about how significant the beans are to many people in the city.

The Five-Scented Beans were created in the 1930s by local businessman Guo Yingzhou, who was very interested in the local snack huixiangdou, a dish made of small green soybeans toasted with cinnamon, fennel and other spices.

Guo bought some spiced beans, and after much experimentation, he eventually made a new dish featuring the beans which had a firmer texture. Guo called it wuxiangdou.

The unique flavour of the beans soon became a hit and local celebrities would ask their servants to go all the way to City God Temple to retrieve them.

The art of making wuxiangdou was listed in the second batch of Municipal Intangible Cultural Heritage items in June 2009. The snack is still very popular in Shanghai even today.