Underground Treasure Hunt: Unearthing a Bumper Harvest from the Soil

Its taste is peculiar, and others turn up their noses at it, but he treasures it as a gem. He believes he has discovered a huge business opportunity and must take the plunge. See what clever moves Tan Xinpei of Sichuan has up his sleeve to turn an overlooked niche mushroom into a money-making treasure.

One day after lunch, villager Liu Shunqiong led out her family's old sow, and the whole family prepared to take the sow to a nearby mountain to search for a kind of treasure. What the villagers were looking for was truffles. It was truffle harvest season, and Tan Xinpei also followed the villagers into the mountains to learn about the quality of this season's truffles. Truffles grow underground and cannot be seen with the naked eye, but the sow could help.

Tan Xinpei: Usually you need a sow, because truffles contain something called androstenone. It is said that when a sow is in heat and smells the aroma of truffles, she will root them out.

In the past, ordinary people did not know what truffles were. They only saw that pigs left to roam in the mountains would root out a kind of wild mushroom from underground to eat, so they named this mushroom "pig-rooting mushroom."

Liu Shunqiong, villager of Tuanjie Village, He'ai Township, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: In the past, when we raised livestock, cattle and sheep, the pigs were let out to graze along with the cattle and sheep. We saw the pigs eating them, and that is how they were discovered. Now people know, but before people did not know. They only knew after seeing the pigs eat them. If pigs can eat them, maybe people can too.

Ordinary pen-raised pigs have difficulty even being driven up the mountain, let alone finding truffles. But this sow belonging to Liu Shunqiong's family was often taken into the mountains by her.

Tan Xinpei: It is searching. Look, it may have mistaken that pine cone for a truffle. See that? It is gnawing on the pine cone.

Wild truffles are found in Yunnan, Sichuan, Tibet and other places in China. The truffle growth cycle is one year. It is a mycorrhizal edible mushroom that needs to live symbiotically with specific trees, generally about 10 cm below the forest soil. Pigs find truffles by being attracted to their special odor, while villagers must rely on accumulated experience.

Tan Xinpei: Generally it is under trees like pines and firs. You see, this one has pine cones, so it is easier for us to find them under this tree. Look, this is what we call airplane grass here. It spreads very quickly. Wherever this grass grows short, small and not lush, there may be truffles underneath. The truffles have taken away the nutrients from these grasses.

The villagers told the reporter that digging for truffles not only takes a great deal of time, but also requires luck.

Chen Shangyin, villager of Tuanjie Village, He'ai Township, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: We stay on the mountain.

Reporter: You stay on the mountain.

Chen Shangyin, villager of Tuanjie Village, He'ai Township, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: We carry dry rations. Wherever there are truffles, we dig there. We search everywhere. If we look at the shape of the mountain and think there are truffles, we dig for two days. If there are none, we leave. We keep going until we dig some up. When the dry rations are finished, we come back, sell the truffles, and then continue digging. Right.

Although the end of the year is the season for digging truffles, finding them is not easy. That day, it was not until evening that Tan Xinpei finally found one first.

Tan Xinpei: There is one here. This is a stone. This is one.

Reporter: This is it?

Tan Xinpei: Yes, but covered with soil like this, it is not easy to spot. Look, this is a truffle.

Just as everyone was preparing to go down the mountain, the sow suddenly stopped, as if she had made some discovery.

Tan Xinpei: After she smells an odor that interests her, she may linger here, and then we are likely to find some in this area.

Liu Shunqiong, villager of Tuanjie Village, He'ai Township, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: There is one here.

Tan Xinpei: Found another one. This one is not bad. Let us take a look. It is good. It is black, ripe, already black.

Unlike ordinary edible mushrooms, truffles are hard in texture. When a ripe black truffle is cut open, you will see dark marbled patterns like this. Truffles have a unique odor. Interestingly, some people find it fragrant, while others think it stinks.

Tan Xinpei: Some say it smells like dirty socks, like old bedsheets, and others say it smells like body odor, and still others say it smells like semen. Everyone's perception is different.

Reporter: Dirty socks, old bedsheets, none of those are fragrant.

Tan Xinpei: But I think it depends on the person. The benevolent see benevolence, the wise see wisdom.

Reporter: What do you think this smells like?

Liu Shunqiong, villager of Tuanjie Village, He'ai Township, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: I cannot describe that smell.

Reporter: This smell is hard to describe, is it not?

Liu Shunqiong, villager of Tuanjie Village, He'ai Township, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: But once it is cooked, you can smell that the chicken soup is fragrant.

Chen Shangyin, villager of Tuanjie Village, He'ai Township, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: This smell is like the fragrance of honey.

Reporter: What do you think this smells like?

Tang Guoshun, villager of Tuanjie Village, He'ai Township, Yanbian County, Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: It is hard to describe.

It is precisely this indescribable odor that directly determines the price of truffles. The scientific name of truffle is Tuber. In China, there are mainly two varieties, black truffle and white truffle. At the time of the reporter's interview, the black truffles dug by villagers sold for 320-500 yuan/kg, while white truffles were relatively rare, priced at about 800 yuan/kg.

Zheng Linyong, scientist in the National Edible Mushroom Industry Technology System and researcher at the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences: The aroma of truffles is wonderful beyond words. Moreover, among our ordinary ingredients, there is no such aroma type. Unripe truffles are not fragrant and, it should be said, are worthless on the international market, but ripe truffles have a special fragrance. The value or price of truffles themselves is determined by their special fragrance. It has little to do with nutritional composition; it is related to the species.

In recent years, the fame of truffles in China has been rising year by year, and the price of fresh truffles has risen from a few dozen yuan per jin to several hundred yuan per jin. However, back when truffles were not worth much, Tan Xinpei already believed that truffles could bring him wealth. Now everyone says Tan Xinpei's foresight is extraordinary.

Chen Bi, local specialty dealer in Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province: In the past, our truffles were sold on the streets and at street corners, very, very cheaply. This product was promoted by him from beginning to end.

Sun Yanbin, deputy director of the Panzhihua City Forestry Bureau, Sichuan Province: What we originally considered an unremarkable resource has suddenly become a highlight in the development of our forestry industry. Mr. Tan has played an indispensable role in the development of the truffle industry.

How exactly did Tan Xinpei do it?

This is where Tan Xinpei first discovered truffles. In his early years, Tan Xinpei was an art teacher and ran an advertising company. Because he was interested in the restaurant business, he switched to running restaurants. In 2006, he was working as a planning director at a hotel in downtown Panzhihua, while also running a farmhouse restaurant. One day, at a stall selling wild mushrooms, he discovered a kind of mushroom covered in soil. The locals called it "motherless fruit."