One gourd vine bears 421 fruits, Tangshan farmer breaks world record
China News Service, Tangshan, October 7 (Bai Yunshui, Sun Yi) Holding the world record certificate he had just received, Zheng Baoping in front of the camera lens was grinning from ear to ear with joy. What won him this certificate turned out to be the 421 gourds borne by a single gourd vine in his yard.
On the 7th, Zheng Baoping, a farmer living in Caofeidian District, Tangshan, Hebei, received the “gift” he had long awaited, a certificate from the World Record Association. The record for “the most gourds borne by a single gourd vine in the world” was thus born.
Zheng Baoping, a farmer from Caofeidian, Tangshan, holds the world record certificate and happily poses for a photo with his 421 gourd babies. Photo by Sun Yi
After China News Service reported on September 6 the strange news that a gourd vine at Zheng Baoping's home had borne more than three hundred “gourd babies,” local villagers were astonished, and the impact of the related reports also gave him the idea of applying for a world record.
Zheng Baoping said that after four staff members from the Caofeidian District Notary Office counted them one by one, the gourd vine at his home had borne a total of 421 gourds, more than three times the previous world record of 119. The notary staff then sent the on-site counting video to the headquarters of the World Record Association in Hong Kong, China. After that, following the World Record Association's preliminary review, re-review and a 20-day public notice period, Zheng Baoping finally got what he wanted and received the world record certificate.
Entering Zheng Baoping's home again, the former small farmyard had taken on a completely new look. To welcome the birth of the world record, Zheng Baoping redecorated the small yard, from the 18-meter-long printed decoration down to the red string tied on the gourds, every detail reflecting how special this gourd vine was.
This world-record-winning gourd vine was planted by Zheng Baoping in early May this year, and ordinarily he only gave it routine watering and weeding, with no special treatment. But the vine's growth was unexpected: a vine about three cm in diameter climbed up along the steel bars in the yard, spreading its branches and leaves over the entire metal mesh frame, like a huge sunshade. Hanging among the branches and leaves were as many as 421 gourds of varying shapes, the large ones 8 or 9 cm long and the small ones around 3 or 4 cm.
Zheng Baoping said he plans to rename the yard “Baoping Gourd Yard” and later open it free to visitors as a sightseeing spot. At present he is “scraping the skin” of these gourds, after which they can be made into specimens so as to preserve the gourds' original form on the vine for a long time.
What surprised Zheng Baoping was that before the gourd specimens were even finished, some tourists visiting the Caofeidian wetlands had already toured his “Baoping Gourd Yard” as a sightseeing spot. Most of these tourists, drawn by its fame, came from Beijing and Tianjin, and the number could reach more than 200 a day.
“The 2016 World Horticultural Exposition will be held in Tangshan, Hebei, and I hope to move this ‘magical' gourd vine to the expo so that more people can see the gourd vine that set the world record.” Zheng Baoping said. (End)