Hairy crab in Shanghai: when the season is, how to eat it, and what to watch

The short answer. Hairy crab (大闸蟹, dàzháxiè), the Chinese mitten crab, is Shanghai’s autumn treat. The season opens in late September and runs into winter. The old saying is “nine female, ten male” (九雌十雄, jiǔ cí shí xióng): females are best in the ninth month of the lunar calendar (roughly October) and males in the tenth (roughly November). Eat it steamed, never raw. It is a shellfish, so skip it if you have a shellfish allergy.

When is hairy crab season?

• Late September to October: Yangcheng Lake, the best-known source, opens its harvest in late September. Early crabs are often less full.
• October: females, full of orange roe.
• November into December: males, rich with a sticky white paste.

Lunar months move against our calendar each year, so treat “October” and “November” as a guide, not a rule. A Shanghai paper made the point that crabs eaten at the Mid-Autumn Festival are often too early to be at their best.

Where the crabs come from

Hairy crabs are freshwater crabs raised in the lakes of the Yangtze delta. Yangcheng Lake (阳澄湖, Yángchéng Hú), near Suzhou, is the famous name. Its crabs are a protected geographical indication: only crabs raised in about 113 square kilometres of the lake’s natural water may carry the name. Crabs from ponds round the lake may not.

Because the name sells, fakes are common. Since 2025, every Yangcheng Lake crab carries a plastic ring tag (蟹扣, xièkòu) on one leg and each box carries a seal. The ring has a laser-etched front and a QR code on the back that you scan with WeChat to see where the crab came from. Red rings mean the crab was raised in pens in the lake; blue-green rings mean high-standard farm ponds.

How to eat a whole crab

You get the crab steamed whole, with a dish of ginger and black vinegar. Restaurants often bring a small set of tools.

1. Pull off the legs and claws. Push the meat out with the tip of a leg or the small pick.
2. Lift the top shell from the back. The roe or paste is inside it. Eat it with a spoon.
3. Remove the parts you don’t eat. Xinhua’s health advice is to take out the gills (the soft grey “fingers”), the heart (a small hexagonal piece in the middle), the stomach (a small sac behind the mouth) and the intestine.
4. Break the body in half and pick out the white meat.
5. Dip in the ginger vinegar as you go.

Safety and health

• Only eat it cooked through. Raw, pickled and “drunken” crab (醉蟹, zuìxiè) can carry lung fluke parasites. Avoid them, especially if you are pregnant.
• Avoid dead or sluggish crabs. Xinhua’s advice is not to eat crabs that died before cooking, or leftovers from the night before.
• Not with unripe persimmon or lots of beer. The same advice warns that unripe persimmon after crab can cause stomach pain, and that beer raises uric acid. Warm rice wine is the traditional drink with crab.
• Allergies. Hairy crab is a strong allergen. Crab meat and roe (蟹粉, xièfěn) also turn up in xiaolongbao, tofu and noodle dishes in autumn, often cooked with lard.
• Moderation. The advice suggests one or two crabs a day for a healthy adult, and less if you have gout.

Words to know

Chinese	Pinyin	Meaning
大闸蟹	dàzháxiè	Hairy crab
母蟹 / 公蟹	mǔ xiè / gōng xiè	Female / male crab
蟹黄	xièhuáng	Female roe
蟹膏	xiègāo	Male paste
蟹粉	xièfěn	Picked crab meat and roe, used in other dishes
清蒸	qīngzhēng	Steamed plain
醉蟹	zuìxiè	Drunken (raw, wine-soaked) crab: avoid

If crab is off your menu, our dietary card has a shellfish line that names crab meat, shrimp, oyster sauce and dried shrimp. For other autumn dishes, see What to eat in Shanghai.