Xianju lures Shanghai tourists with sweet and juicy waxberries
Xianju hosts a waxberry picking event during this year's waxberry festival.
It's the waxberry season again and the Xianju County in neighboring Zhejiang Province where a waxberry festival has kicked off is luring Shanghai tourists with its big, succulent and sweet waxberries.
A waxberry and tourism promotion event of Xianju was held in Shanghai's Xuhui District on Friday.
Xianju is widely known for its reputation as "China's waxberry town" and the history of waxberry planting in Xianju can be dated back to more than 1,000 years ago. Waxberry trees over 300 years old are still growing in the county.
Waxberries grown in Xianju are big, juicy and have a reddish purple color and a sweet flavor. Some are even bigger than a table tennis. They usually ripe in early June, earlier than elsewhere.
The abundant rainfall and sunshine, and the big temperature difference between day and night in Xianju all provide favorable conditions for the growth of waxberries.
During this year’s waxberry festival through July 10, picking events, cultural activities and waxberry tours will be organized.
Waxberries grown in Xianju feature a big size, a juicy taste, a reddish purple color and a sweet flavor.
Xianju tops other places in China in terms of the size of waxberry growing areas and yield.
The growing space of waxberries in Xianju totals 138,000 mu of land, and it is home to four big waxberry growing bases and 21 wholesale markets.
The yield of the Xianju waxberry is expected to reach 90,000 tons this year. The waxberries are exported to a number of countries such as Canada, Germany and "Belt and Road" countries.
People pick waxberry in Xianju.
Tourists to the county are able to pick fresh waxberries following farmers and taste waxberry products such as juice, wine and chewable tablets.
In 2017, tourist attractions across Xianju recorded 1.69 million visits during the waxberry festival, up 12.1 percent from a year earlier. The tourism revenue was 721 million yuan (US$116 million).
Waxberry boosts Xianju's tourism industry, making June and July the most popular season of Xianju tourism in a year.
Shenxianju, a 5A-level national tourist attraction in Xianju, is surrounded by hills, serene creeks, raging waterfalls and meandering mountain roads.
Xianju, in Chinese, means "place where the immortals reside." The name reflects the picturesque scenery and heavenly beauty of this county southwest of Shanghai.
The county boasts a variety of scenic spots such as Shenxianju, a 5A-level national tourist attraction surrounded by hills, serene creeks, raging waterfalls and meandering mountain roads and Yong'an Creek famous for its clean, fresh water and its rafting.
The forest coverage in Xianju reaches 79.6 percent and it is known as a "natural oxygen bar."
