A common and popular street snack in China is a type of sugar that has had it’s skin stripped off. In Chinese, the cane is called “Gan1 Zhe”, or ?? if you can read Chinese characters on your computer). There are basically two ways to enjoy it:

1. Have the vendor strip off the skin and gnaw gently into the meat.  Suck the juice out and then spit the dried pulp onto the street.  Be careful when you arrive at the joint of the cane.  You can really hurt your teeth if your not careful.  Chew at an angle to bite off the joint so you can continue to enjoy the next section.
2. Have the vendor put the can through a juice extractor and just drink the juice.  It’s funny; I just saw a bunch of vendors selling this juice to people through the fence bordering a popular park.  They’d set up their mobile juice extracting units on their bikes just on the other side of the fences and people would make paths through the bushes to buy the juice from them.  I guess they saved on park vendor fees or something.

I tired it not long ago and it’s not bad, though I can’t really see myself going for the perpetual spitting required.  You’ll enjoy it if you have a sweet tooth; it’s got to be the sweetest natural drink I’ve ever had.  I’m surprised that Chinese people like it so much.  Vendors typically sell a 1.5′ section of cane for 1 RMB, about 14 cents.

Some pics for you: