60 Years of Lychee Cultivation: This Remarkable Man from Dongguan, Guangdong Is No Ordinary Grower
Dongguan in Guangdong Province enjoys the reputation of being the "Hometown of Lychees," and the lychees of Dalingshan are the finest representatives of Dongguan lychees. Among the many lychee orchards in Dalingshan, Li Shouhua's Huafeng Orchard is renowned far and wide.
Li Shouhua, now 78 years old, has grown lychees for nearly 60 years. At yesterday's lychee tasting event, half of the 18 varieties came from his orchard.
Li Shouhua's life is quite legendary. Before becoming a lychee grower, he was a teacher at Dongguan Middle School and a primary school principal. In 1981, in order to return to Dalingshan to grow lychees, he applied to transfer from Dongguan Middle School back to a middle school in Dalingshan to teach. In just 3 years, he set the best example for the local villagers through his own achievements, and also sparked a wave of lychee cultivation throughout Dalingshan.
A Middle School Teacher Returns Home to Contract Mountain Land for Lychee Cultivation
When it comes to Dongguan's lychee "remarkable men," many people recommend Li Shouhua.
Yesterday, the reporter also met this lychee "remarkable man" at the tasting event. At 78 years old, he is still full of energy and physically robust.
When the reporter praised Li Shouhua's physique, he said that he started growing lychees at the age of 20 and has been growing them for nearly 60 years now. He exercises every day, and his arms still have muscle.
Li Shouhua has spent most of his life working with lychees, but he does not fit the stereotype of fruit growers having a "low level of education."
Li Shouhua once studied at Dongguan Middle School and stayed on to work there after graduation. From 1969 to 1981, he was a teacher at Dongguan Middle School.
Li Shouhua said he has always had a strong interest in biology and botany, and taught himself a great deal of knowledge. In 1981, he made an important decision -- to transfer back to his hometown in Dalingshan and contract mountain land to grow lychees.
From 1984 Onward, Dalingshan Began Large-Scale Lychee Cultivation
At that time, Dalingshan was covered in barren hills and wild ridges. Li Shouhua transferred back to a middle school in Dalingshan to continue teaching, and at the same time began growing lychees. He said that besides his own love of growing lychees, he also wanted to set an example and lead the way for the local villagers.
Li Shouhua's actions indeed had an effect. Three years later, the villagers saw that his orchard was yielding abundantly, so they joined the ranks of lychee growers one after another. It was only after this that Dalingshan saw large-scale lychee cultivation.
Li Shouhua recalled that a single natural village in Dalingshan once had a lychee planting area of 10,000 mu, but in recent years, due to industrial development, only about 2,000 mu of lychee planting area remains.
In 1984, Li Shouhua's school, together with the Lianping Administrative District of Dalingshan, contracted 35 mu of land and established Huafeng Orchard. To this day, Huafeng Orchard remains one of the most famous orchards in Dalingshan.
Wherever There Are Good Varieties, He Goes to Find Trees
1993 was the year Li Shouhua and his orchard became famous. He recalled that it was the year with the lowest lychee production in Dongguan since liberation. That year, it happened that the municipal government was in Hong Kong, China, attracting investment, and because lychees were hard to buy everywhere, they went through many channels before finally finding Huafeng Orchard. Li Shouhua sold to them at a price of 90 yuan/jin.
From 1984 to the present, Huafeng Orchard has been the focus of Li Shouhua's hard work for 32 years. In 2010, Li Shouhua was also named one of the "Top Ten Skilled Growers." He has always worked hard at research, hoping to grow more delicious lychees. Wherever there is a good variety, he goes there to find the tree and bring it back to the orchard for grafting.
He now not only passes on all his skills to his children, but also teaches anyone who comes to "seek his advice" without holding anything back.
Li Shouhua's Huafeng Orchard
Bred a Unique Variety Called "Lingfengnuo"
At Li Shouhua's Huafeng Orchard, there is a unique variety called "Lingfengnuo." It has three major characteristics: high sweetness, high yield, and a long shelf life. This year it also sold for 45 yuan/jin, making it highly valuable economically.
Li Shouhua told the reporter about the origin of Lingfengnuo. In 2009, Li Shouhua discovered a special variety in his orchard that had mutated from a mountain branch, so he reported it to the municipal lychee association. Afterward, graduate students from South China Agricultural University came to the orchard, and after three years of observation, confirmed that this was a new high-quality lychee variety.
The name Lingfengnuo was also adopted from Li Shouhua's suggestion. "'Ling' represents the 'Ling' of Dalingshan, giving it local character; 'Feng' means it is more productive than other varieties; and 'Nuo' means it is an excellent variety with a taste like glutinous rice dumplings."
At present, Lingfengnuo has also been promoted to Guangzhou, Maoming and other places.
Many Lychee Anecdotes
Have You Heard of All of These?
As the place of origin of lychees, our country has been cultivating lychees since ancient times, and many classical texts also record anecdotes about lychees. Among them, Du Mu's "A rider raises dust as the concubine smiles, no one knows it is the lychees that arrive." and Su Dongpo's "If I could eat three hundred lychees a day, I would not mind being a lingnan native forever." are the two most widely circulated poems. Yesterday, in addition to explaining knowledge about lychees, Li Ping also selected several anecdotes about lychees and offered his own views.
"If I Could Eat Three Hundred Lychees a Day"
Should Be "One Bite of Lychee, Three Fires of Heat"
According to textual research, Su Dongpo was exiled to Lingnan during the Shaosheng era of Emperor Zhezong of Song, and first ate lychees in the second year of Shaosheng. After that, he mentioned lychees many times in his poetry and prose. Among them is "Beneath Luofu Mountain, spring lasts all four seasons; loquats and bayberries come fresh one after another. If I could eat three hundred lychees a day, I would not mind being a lingnan native forever."
Li Ping mentioned that "If I could eat three hundred lychees a day" is actually Su Dongpo's misreading of Cantonese. Restored to Cantonese, it should be "One bite of lychee, three fires of heat."
Because lychee is sweet and warm in nature and has the effect of tonifying qi and nourishing essence, dispersing cold and promoting the movement of qi, people with a yin-deficiency constitution, especially those with chronic tonsillitis or pharyngitis, will aggravate "deficient fire" if they eat too many lychees. Therefore, Cantonese people have the saying "one lychee, three fires of heat."
The Lychees That Yang Guifei Ate
How Were They Delivered to Chang'an?
Lychees that have not undergone preservation treatment have the characteristic of "changing color in one day, changing fragrance in two days, changing taste in three days, and completely losing color, fragrance and taste in four days." Preserving lychees is relatively difficult.
Legend has it that during the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Ming of Tang, to win a smile from Yang Guifei, had lychees sent to Chang'an from Guangdong and Guangxi in Lingnan, and Fujian (some say Sichuan). Exactly where were the lychees produced, and what preservation method was used?
Li Ping said that, judging by common sense, Lingnan is a thousand li away from Chang'an, and no matter how fast a horse was, it could not arrive in a single day. Later textual research concluded that the fresh lychees Yang Guifei ate were delivered to Chang'an by transplanting large fruit-bearing trees.
Historical records state: "Take lychees with roots attached, plant them in vessels, transport them from southern Chu to northern Chu at Xiangyang on the Dan River, and carry them to Shangzhou, where the Qinling Mountains are impassable by boat; by then the fruit is just ripe, so it is picked and carried over the ridge, and by flying horse to Huaqing Palace, it can arrive in one day." This inference also confirms that lychee was originally "lizhi" (meaning "leave the branch").