A grand review of famous domestic oyster-producing areas: which place has the best-tasting oysters?

Oysters are also called "muli" (oysters); their flesh is delicious and highly nutritious, making them a precious seafood product. Oysters are the world's largest farmed shellfish, so where are China's oyster-producing areas? Which place has the best-tasting oysters? Let me introduce them below.

1. Zhanjiang oysters

Oysters are produced in coastal areas all over the country, and the most famous are Zhanjiang oysters. Zhanjiang is surrounded by the sea on three sides, with a coastline of more than 1300 kilometers, making it the city with the longest coastline in the country. The Zhanjiang area has many bays, vast tidal flats, and coastal reefs and rocks everywhere, with jumbled stones piled on top of one another. In addition, Zhanjiang was a volcanic eruption area in ancient times, and large amounts of trace elements and minerals nourished plankton, allowing it to multiply and gather in great numbers, becoming delicious food for oysters. Zhanjiang oysters have won market favor with their unique qualities: delicious and fresh flavor, plump and smooth flesh, and tender, soft, and crisp texture.

2. Chengcun oysters

"To taste crab, go to Jiangsu and Zhejiang; to eat oysters, go to Yangjiang" refers to the oysters of Chengcun Town, Yangxi County, Guangdong Province. Protected as a national geographical indication product and renowned at home and abroad, "Chengcun oysters" have a farming history of more than 180 years, and the main farmed variety is the Jinjiang oyster. The oysters of Chengcun Town are located right at the estuary where the Fengtou River and Zhigong River flow into the sea. Here the water is moderately salty and fresh, there are many harbors, and the bottom is rich in microorganisms, making it extremely suitable for oyster growth. Chengcun oysters are characterized by their large size, fresh and sweet taste, and glossy color. The oysters produced each year are sold far away to markets in China as well as Hong Kong, China, and Macao, China.

3. Shajing oysters

Shajing in Bao'an, Shenzhen is a "millennium oyster township," and the oysters produced there are very famous, making them Shenzhen's most renowned specialty. The oysters here are produced in the place where the saltwater and freshwater of the Pearl River Estuary meet. They are plump, milky white in color, and tender and delicious in flesh, rich in protein and vitamins, with an iodine content 200 times that of milk and egg yolk. In the 1990s, the discharge of industrial and domestic sewage along the Pearl River coast led to a decline in water quality, which in turn affected the water quality of the oyster-farming sea areas. Shajing's oyster-farming industry suffered devastating damage. Not only did Shajing oysters become smaller, but their taste was also not as good as before. However, after many years of improvement, the quality of today's Shajing oysters is still quite good.

4. Rushan oysters

Rushan City is located at the southeastern end of the Shandong Peninsula. Rushan's coastline is 199 kilometers long, and it has 500,000 mu of farming sea areas meeting the national Class I seawater quality standard. Within its borders, the two rivers flowing into the sea, the Huanglei River and the Rushan River, provide abundant nutrients to the sea area, promoting the reproduction and growth of the basic marine organisms needed for oyster growth. Thanks to the unique sea area conditions and climate environment, Rushan oysters are large, high in fatness, good in flesh quality, and delicious in taste. In 2008, "Rushan oysters" were officially approved and announced by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, becoming a geographical indication trademark.

5. Chenzhou oysters

Chenzhou Oyster Island has a mild climate, small temperature differences, abundant rainfall, and sufficient sunlight, making it an excellent oyster-farming location. Chenzhou oyster meat is milky white; besides being plump and firm, the flesh is also somewhat crisp, with a rich flavor. It has the reputation of "milk of the sea" and is famed far and wide for being plump, tender, fresh, and delicious. The Chenzhou oysters produced there are sold far away to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and other places. Chenzhou oysters are called "China's No. 1 oyster of the south." Their protein, zinc, iron, manganese, selenium, and other contents are all higher than those of products from other areas. They have obtained a national geographical indication trademark and are a treasure of Shanwei.

The above is an introduction to China's oyster-producing areas. Oysters from different producing areas each have their own characteristics, and taste varies from person to person. However, these major producing areas are recognized as the oyster-producing areas with the best quality and are deeply loved by consumers. Every year, large quantities of oysters from these producing areas are sold to all parts of the country. By the way, which producing area's oysters do you like eating most?