NE China vendors sweet-talk customers into grins with sticky bean buns

In winter at Snow Town in Mudanjiang, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, the temperature hovers around minus 20 degrees Celsius, making people shiver.

A vendor lifts the steamer lid, and a whoosh of white steam rises. Take a bite of a sticky bean bun- steamed sticky dough with sweet red bean paste. Soft and chewy on the outside, smooth and sweet on the inside. Dipped in white sugar, it tastes sweet all the way to your heart. Then the vendor calls out, "Princess, have a sticky bean bun!" and you're grinning from ear to ear. You come for the sticky bean bun, but stay for the human warmth in a world of ice and snow.