City residents get to experience rice planting
City dwellers experience farming.
A rice paddy is turned into a work of art.
City dwellers meandered along country roads and worked in rice fields at a special science event over the weekend.
To commemorate Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice," the event, part of the 2021 Science Night serial activities, invited local families to experience farming in the suburban Fengxian District.
They transplanted rice seedlings in the field of Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and tasted the academy's newly-cultivated rice and corn.
The academy has planted rice of various types and colors to create images such as "100," "1921" and the emblem of the Communist Party of China in a paddy field in celebration of the Party's 100th anniversary of the founding.
The huge rice paddy art, 200 meters long and 100 meters wide, has become popular with photographers.
Children were also invited to the academy's labs to explore how researchers cultivate new crops, including experiencing extracting the DNA of rice. The also viewed a biographical film of Yuan.
June marks the annual rice planting season.
City dwellers walk between the rice fields.
Children learn the science of growing rice.
