Kunming Flourishes with Harvest Scenery
Source: InKunming | 2023-10-16 | Editor:Amy
As the autumn harvest season arrives,
one cannot help but admire
the waves of rice and beans.
When Sun Ranweng inscribed
the Long Couplet for Daguan Pavillion,
it may have also been during the harvest season,
hence the reference to
"bountiful rice" in the opening line.
On a sunny autumn day, in the fields of Yujiagou Village, Shadi Village Committee, Jincheng Sub-district, Jinning District, the fragrance of rice permeates the air. Over 20 villagers skillfully engage in the art of threshing rice, deftly bundling the straw into stacks.
In 2020, the Shadi Village Committee replaced all the greenhouses along Dianchi Lake with traditional crops like rice, rapeseed, and lotus roots, covering an area of 2,520 mu. From then on, people can admire yellow blossoms of cole flowers in spring, smell the fragrant lotus blooms in summer, and see the abundance of rice flowers in autumn. Besides the successful agricultural harvest, diverse seasonal landscapes here also attract numerous tourists for sightseeing and photography. The Shadi Village is benefiting from combining agriculture, culture, and tourism. All three village Minsu (Chinese-style bed-and-breakfast establishments) were fully booked during the National Day holiday.
Two kilometers away, Xinglong Village presents another scene of rice harvesting. Small-sized harvesters shuttle through the rice fields, and before long, a mound of rice paddies is harvested. As the villagers need to preserve some straw for other purposes, Yujiagou Village opts for manual harvesting, where the straw is broken into fragments in the fields, serving as fertilizer.
Xingwang Village, located on the southern bank of Dianchi Lake in Kunyang Sub-district, Jinning District, has always been known as the "land of fish and rice". Recently, the villagers have been busy harvesting 560 mu of eco-friendly rice. "A few years ago, this land was filled with low-end flower greenhouses. At the end of April this year, Xingwang Village demolished those greenhouses and replaced them with eco-friendly rice fields," said Yang Ying, a cadre of Xingwang Village. The eco-friendly rice in Xingwang Village does not use pesticides, and weed control is done manually, while insect control relies on biological methods.
In the middle of the two rice fields being harvested lies the most popular spot on Huanhunan Road, the rice paddy-themed train cars. After being transformed, a few carriages have become Minsu (Chinese-style bed-and-breakfast establishments), hot pot restaurants, and coffee shops, which will soon be officially opened for business.
On the eastern bank of Dianchi Lake, in Fubao Community, Liujia Sub-district, Guandu District, the "urban countryside" has also had a bountiful harvest. The "urban countryside" was created through land transfer, covering a total area of 1,269.97 mu. Similar to the Shadi Village Committee, this land was previously used mainly for growing vegetables, but since last year, rice has been grown. Approximately 400 mu of rice has been cultivated this year, with an expected yield of 300 kilograms per mu.
The fish raised in the rice fields, growing alongside the seedlings in the water, has made its way to the table. In Kunming, fish farming in rice paddies has been flourishing for centuries, adding a delightful atomosphere to the autumn harvest with fragrant rice and plump fish.
"As a grain of millet is sown in spring,
a myriad of grains are harvested in autumn."
The most beautiful sight of Kunming's
autumn lies in these patches of golden rice fields,
where one can feel the joy and satisfaction
brought by a bountiful harvest.
Click here to view Chinese report
(Editors: Rachel, Amy)
