Chenggong district of Kunming city

Baozhu pear, which is a special local product of Chenggong district of Kunming city, is at the excellent harvest time now. 

Wangxichong community of Chenggong(Xinhua/Xu Hualing)

The story of Baozhu pear

According to the Local Records of Chenggong County, Baozhu, an eminent monk in the Song Dynasty, grafted a local pear tree with a sapling of snow pear that he had brought from Dali, and he eventually cultivated a unique pear after a long period of time. In order to commemorate the monk Baozhu, local residents named the pear “Baozhu”. 

Baozhu Pear (Xinhua/Liu Yun) 

16 dishes made of Baozhu pear

Baozhu pear is crisp, juicy and sweet, which makes it suitable for cooking fruit dishes. To further develop the industry of Baozhu pear, Chenggong locals invited four top chefs for Baozhu Pear  Feast before the National Day of China. The invited made 16 dishes with Baozhu pear in the feast and then chefs from the local farmhouses learned how to cook them. 

After receiving the invitation, the four top chefs reached an agreement that traditional methods of steaming, frying and deep frying and Chenggong’s local special products like Baozhu pear, tofu and pea flour would be adopted to cook. Finally, 16 dishes were cooked, such as Tofu mariko with Baozhu pear, crispy pear rings, braised pork with Baozhu pear, Steamed fish head with baozhu pear and so on. 

Crispy rings made of Bozhu pear (Xinhua/Liu Yun) 

“The size of the firepower and the length of cooking time are significant for delicious Baozhu pear dishes because the fresh and tender quality of pear puts forward higher requirements for skills,” Bo Tianliang, one of the top chefs, said. “I hope the 16 dishes could be widely spread in Chenggong, so more people can taste the delicious food.”

A better life of pear growers 

With the development of Baozhu pear industry, some fruit farmers of Wanxichong community of Chenggong have get rid of poverty. Many of them have built modern houses and run farmhouses , attracting visitors from different places.

Yang Huai is one of them. What impresses him most is the change of his house, from the mud house in the memory to the tiled house and now the brick-and-mortar house. “The bigger the fruit, the better the price. Now we can retail pears or sell them by bulk,” he said. 

Yang Huai was putting baozhu pears into a basket. (Xinhu/Liu Yun)

At present, the planting area of Baozhu pear in Chenggong is 17,000 mu and it is mainly distributed in 8 community neighborhood committees of Duanjiaying, Langjiaying, Mujiagying, Qianweiying, Wanxichong,Hengchong, Daying and Zhuangzi. 

Click here to view Chinese report

(Editors: Alison, Rachel)