Video editing, Li Hao.

Villager Hu Shiping went into the mountain to collect mushrooms. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

In the peak season of wild mushrooms, Hu Shiping, a villager from Zhujuankou Village, Zhongshan Town, Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province, would go into the mountains to find wild mushrooms at six o 'clock every morning. He has 30 years of experience in collecting mushrooms and knows well about how to distinguish different kinds of fungi and how to pick them.

Mushrooms were well wrapped. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

"Since May every year, I go to the mountains to look for wild mushrooms, even live in the mountains in the peak season." Hu Shiping recalled that he once picked more than 10 kilograms of matsutake in one day.

People came to buy mushrooms. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

There are more than 20 kinds of mushrooms in Chuxiong's forests, including porcini mushroom, truffle, matsutake, green-cracking russula and so on.

Wild mushrooms. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

Villagers pick wild mushrooms and sell them in the town or city. With about 5,000 families in the town collecting mushrooms, the wild mushroom industry has brought considerable income to the town.

Wild mushrooms at the market. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

In Chuxiong City, there are 20 wild mushroom trading markets. Gong Zhaorong was one of the early live streamers to sell goods. In 2020, he and his friends found that the wild mushroom in Chuxiong was good in quality. They thought they could promote the wild mushroom online.

In the wild mushroom trading market, Gong Zhaorong was doing live broadcasting. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

Gong Zhaorong said he has been doing broadcasting in the market every day since about April and May. Last year, he sometimes delivered 40 to 50 goods a day.

The rapid development of e-commerce is gradually becoming an important way for Chuxiong City to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and achieve agricultural efficiency and increase the income of farmers.

Wild mushrooms in the restaurant. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

Cleaned wild mushrooms. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

In Chuxiong, the local restaurants have found methods to preserve wild mushrooms. The person in charge of the restaurant, Song Hongling, said that in the past, the mushroom was fried in oil and then put into the freezer to preserve, and now the restaurant uses the ways of steaming and freezing. When eating in winter, the taste would not change.

Wild mushroom hotpot. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

Baked green-cracking russula. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

Fried thelephora ganbajun. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

Workers sorted the wild bacteria. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

There are also companies that process wild mushrooms in Chuxiong. Wang Gang, head of the quality department of a mushroom processing company, said that the products mainly include dried mushrooms, frozen mushrooms, and heavily processed mushrooms, among which highly processed mushrooms mainly have two categories, ready-to-eat mushrooms, and seasonings. "About 6,000 packets of heavily processed mushrooms can be produced a day."

Wang Gang looked at the ready-to-eat mushrooms. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

Chuxiong City gives full play to the advantages of wild edible mushroom resources to accelerate the development of the mushroom industry. According to statistics, by the end of 2021, Chuxiong City had 5 mushroom production and processing enterprises. The industry had more than 200 stable employees and more than 2,000 seasonal employees. A total of 12,156 tons of wild mushroom trade had been completed, with an output value of 665.32 million yuan.

Workers packed wild mushrooms. [Xinhua/Fan Fangyu]

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(Editors: Christine, Ines)