Forget the "iron rice bowl."  In today's China, instant noodles are sliding down people’s throats in record numbers.

The world’s most populous country had become the No. 1 consumer of instant noodles, Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday. It cited figures from the 4th World Instant Noodle Summit, which was held in Shanghai on Wednesday.

According to summit information, 65.3 billion packs of instant noodles were consumed throughout the world last year — 27.7 billion in China. That was 4.6 billion more packs than Chinese swallowed in 2002, Xinhua said.

It did not say which nation was No.1 in 2002.

Indonesia was No. 2 last year, followed by Japan, the United States and South Korea, Xinhua said.

Chinese typically eat a bowl of either rice or noodles with every meal. Although noodles are traditionally a northern dish and rice a southern one, the lines have blurred as shipping innovations render such regional differences less relevant.

Chinese are racing toward a convenience culture of 24-hour grocery stores, home delivery and microwavable Peking duck in a bag, while instant noodles feed the need for speed.

(Agencies via Xinhua  March 11, 2004)