Health-preservation agriculture tourism grafts on new ways to play

Beijing's urban modern agriculture, in addition to its production, living and ecological functions, has now "grafted on" the concept of health preservation, launching a new agriculture-medicine tourism way to play that lets people enjoy themselves comfortably and eat in a health-preserving way.

Now, at the Caogentang Farm park in Shilou Town, Fangshan District, Beijing, traditional corn and wheat have long ceased to be planted, replaced by 30 kinds of Chinese medicinal herbs that have both ornamental value and are edible, such as Platycodon grandiflorus (balloon flower), Dianthus superbus (fringed pink), Perilla frutescens (purple perilla), Mentha (mint) and Leonurus japonicus (Chinese motherwort). On holidays, many city residents bring their children here for leisure tourism, to learn about Chinese medicinal herbs and experience traditional Chinese medicine culture.

It is understood that under the joint guidance of the Municipal Agricultural Technology Extension Station, the Fangshan Agricultural Technology Extension Station, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Caogentang Farm, while planting Chinese medicinal herbs that are both food and medicine, has developed health-preserving medicinal cuisine. Cold-tossed purple perilla, salt-and-pepper mint, scrambled eggs with Lonicera japonica (honeysuckle), stewed golden-flower chicken with Salvia miltiorrhiza (red sage), and steamed buns with pork and Isatis indigotica (woad) root filling, among others, are all cooked using Chinese medicinal herbs produced on the farm. City residents can order dishes according to their own physical constitution, or ask the farm staff to recommend health-preserving medicinal cuisine based on their own physical constitution. In addition, city residents can also buy portable health-preserving tea packets and potted medicinal plants from the farm; they can also observe the plant growth process in the farm; and, under the guidance of medicinal cuisine chefs, personally make healthy, health-preserving meals.

According to the Municipal Agricultural Technology Extension Station, Beijing's medicinal herb production began in the late 1990s, and by 2002 the city's planting area reached a historical high of 100,000 mu. Afterwards, due to problems such as low returns and continuous cropping obstacles, it showed a fluctuating downward trend, and currently is less than 70,000 mu. China has a long history of the same origin of agriculture and medicine and of medicinal cuisine, and in recent years people have increasingly attached importance to health preservation and health care through diet. For this reason, the station has cooperated with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to develop medicinal cuisine and portable health-preserving tea packets targeting individual physical constitution and four-season health preservation, based on constitution theory and the four-season health-preservation concept in the "Four Qi Regulating the Spirit" chapter of the Huangdi Neijing. This year, pilot promotion has already been carried out among some folk households in Fangshan, Yanqing, Huairou and other places, forming a new feature of folk tourism combining agriculture and medicine.

The person in charge of Caogentang Farm said that since the farm launched health-preserving medicinal cuisine, on every holiday 500 to 600 people stay at the park to dine, changing the previous state in which people would just look around and then leave, and the number of diners has increased by more than 30% year on year. Liu Feifei, Ke Nanyan