[longan]

longan is one kind of fruit that may compare favorably with the litchi in the lingnan good fruit savors. the guangzhou area has cultivated widely at the beginning of the han dynasty of china. longan fruit shapes circle, its shell appears blue yellow, it is big that looks like a projectile, and its pulp are thinner than the litchi, but it is equally crystal clear and sweet. the longan has many varieties; the kind of shi xia is most famous, which is well known for thick pulp, small nucleus, high sugar proportion, clear and melodious sweet and rich juice.

there is also folklore about longan's origin. guangzhou is near to the south china sea, formerly there had the strip wicked dragon in the sea often came ashore and injured the human and animals. a brave and clever young people fight against the wicked dragon, in the war, he cut down its head, and the dragon eyeball fell to the ground, and then sprouted the tree, the fruit on it then is called longan.

the shi xia longan originally produced the shi xia village; it has settled down in the xin jiao town of guangzhou hai zhu area for more than 200 years. the shi xia longan of this town distributes in xiao zhou, lun tou, tu hua, bei shan, and dong feng etc. the tu hua village is most famous for its shi xia longan. the annual output of guang zhou is approximately 1,000 tons, and mostly export hong kong, macao and the european and american various countries. the shi xia longan of suo xi village, hua dong town of hua du region, and the big circle longan of chi ni town, hua du region are famous as well.