Leling, Shandong: Small jujubes make a big mark in sales

Recently, the golden-thread jujubes of Leling, Shandong, have entered harvest season. In China's largest thousand-year-old man-made fruit-bearing forest——the 300,000-mu thousand-year-old jujube forest, red jujubes hang all over the branches, exactly matching the Qing Dynasty poet Wu Taipang's line, "A thousand households' small jujubes glow red against the clouds."

Each ancient jujube tree looks like a natural giant bonsai, attracting a large number of tourists to take photos as souvenirs. Han Yujie, director of the Leling Municipal Tourism Bureau, introduced that within the 300,000-mu jujube forest tourist area, there are 13,000 ancient jujube trees over a thousand years old, and ancient trees over a hundred years old are too numerous to count. The forest coverage rate in the tourist area is as high as 95%, making it a natural oxygen bar.

Every golden autumn in September, Leling holds the Golden-Thread Jujube Cultural Festival and the Red Jujube Expo, driving a series of tourism and cultural projects. The city has successively built more than 20 cultural tourism attractions, including the China Golden-Thread Jujube Culture Museum, the Hundred Jujube Garden, the Hebei-Shandong Border Region Revolutionary Memorial Park, Jujube Village Homes, and the Jujube Village Memory Hall. The 300,000-mu jujube forest tourist area has been upgraded to a national 4A-level scenic area and has been rated as a "National Agricultural Tourism Demonstration Site," a "National Leisure Agriculture and Rural Tourism Demonstration Site," a "Provincial-Level Forest Park," and one of the first batch of "Shandong Province Self-Driving Tour Demonstration Sites."

More than 8,000 jujube trees are planted in the Hundred Jujube Garden, bringing together 596 varieties of high-quality jujubes from across China. Among them are more than 160 types of local Leling jujubes, with 64 varieties of golden-thread jujubes alone. Yuanhong, Xiaotang, Benling, Xiaomu, Xiangling, Xiaocui, Zhipi, Cheng Tuo, Yayao, Maling, Li jujube...each exquisite little jujube attracts batch after batch of tourists who come because of its fame. "In the past we sold jujubes; now just selling 'scenery' brings in more than 900 million yuan in ticket revenue every year," Han Yujie said.

China is the hometown of the jujube. According to historical records, the cultivation of Leling golden-thread jujubes began in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, flourished in the Wei and Jin dynasties, and reached its peak in the Ming and Qing dynasties, with a history of more than 3,000 years. In the eyes of Leling people, the golden-thread jujube is a treasure from head to toe. From the jujube skin, jujube red pigment worth 180,000 yuan per ton can be extracted; the branches and roots can be made into handicrafts; the pits can be made into activated carbon; the jujubes can be made into jujube slices, jujube tea, jujube juice, and jujube wine; and they can also be combined with peanuts and walnuts to make filled jujubes, crystal candied jujubes...

Leling has always focused on deep processing of jujubes. In Leling, a small jujube has achieved a magnificent transformation from "selling raw materials" to "selling products," and then to "selling brands," "selling tourism," and "selling culture." In the production workshop of Leling Baizao Gangmu Biotechnology Co., Ltd., each golden-thread jujube with a small pit and thick flesh undergoes more than a dozen extraction processes, including pit removal, cleaning, and drying, and is turned into various jujube products such as jujube cubes, jujube slices, and filled jujubes. Company manager Shi Shouhua introduced: "Our company has 86 varieties of products, including native jujubes, filled jujubes, candied fruits, and instant drink mixes. We process 3,500 tons of small jujubes annually, with sales revenue of 100 million yuan, and our products sell well in more than 200 cities across China."

At present, Leling has developed more than 400 small jujube deep-processing enterprises. More than 60 brands, including Huiyuan, Derun, and Baizao Gangmu, have developed 10 major series and more than 140 products around different ways of eating jujubes, exporting to more than 50 countries and regions including Europe and the United States, with an annual output value of 2 billion yuan. The development of small jujube deep processing has also given rise to a 12,000-strong small jujube "direct sales corps" and 100,000 specialized small jujube growing households. From this alone, per capita annual income has increased by more than 4,000 yuan.