2016 China Qidong Daylily Festival Kicks Off

Admiring daylilies, picking daylilies, tasting daylily dishes... Recently, the "2016 China·Qidong Daylily Festival" kicked off in Qidong County, where nearly 10,000 local residents and tourists from surrounding areas experienced the rich atmosphere of daylilies and felt the daylily culture that locals call the "wealth-bringing vegetable." At the festival's opening ceremony, Qidong County was awarded the title "Hometown of Chinese Daylilies" by the China Vegetable Circulation Association.

Qidong County is the original producing area of Chinese daylilies in China, with a planting area of 160,000 mu, about 400,000 daylily farmers, and output accounting for more than 70% of the national total. In recent years, the Qidong County Party Committee and County Government have made developing the daylily industry an important part of targeted poverty alleviation, using the daylily industry to drive up farmers' incomes, drive rural eco-tourism, and promote the county's targeted poverty alleviation work. The county has successively introduced reward and subsidy policies, guided farmers and enterprises to develop e-commerce through online sales, and also spent funds to purchase 150 dryers for free use by daylily farmers in the main producing areas (9 townships), guiding farmers to reform the traditional, scattered processing model. At present, daylilies have become a pillar industry of agriculture in Qidong County, with an annual output value exceeding 1 billion yuan.

It is reported that this daylily festival will last for one week, and the local area will successively launch activities such as a daylily dish tasting event, a development summit forum, a daylily picking competition, and a photography contest.