Pinghu Watermelon

Pinghu Watermelon

　　Product Name: Pinghu Watermelon

　　Place of Origin: Jiaxing, Zhejiang

　　Features: High sugar content, juicy, fine flesh, thin rind

　　Ingredients: Glucose, fructose, sucrose, malic acid, pectin, cellulose, protein, carbohydrates, calcium, phosphorus, iron, vitamins B1, B2, A, C, carotene, and niacin, etc.

　　Season: Summer

　　Functions: Relieves thirst and irritability, cools the body, treats sore throat, aids digestion, promotes urination, treats dysentery, detoxifies alcohol, and heals mouth sores

　　History: China's cultivation of watermelon started earliest in Xinjiang, with numerous historical records documenting this. Ouyang Xiu of the Song Dynasty mentioned in the "History of the Five Dynasties" that Hu Qiao, the magistrate of Heyang County in Tongzhou, was captured by the Liao army and served in office in the Khitan region for seven years. It was there that he “first ate watermelon” and learned that Khitan watermelons were introduced from the Huihe people. Li Shizhen’s "Compendium of Materia Medica" during the Ming Dynasty also stated: “The Khitans obtained this fruit after defeating the Huihe, and planted it covered with cow dung.” It further noted: “According to Hu Qiao’s 'Record of Captivity Among the Northern Nomads,' he acquired this fruit from the Huihe and named it watermelon, indicating that watermelon was first introduced to China during the Five Dynasties period.” By the Five Dynasties era, the center of the Huihe people had shifted from the northern steppes to what is now the Xinjiang region. This shows that inland China only began cultivating watermelon about 1,000 years ago, with the seeds introduced via the north from Xinjiang. Xu Guangqi of the Ming Dynasty wrote in the "Complete Treatise on Agriculture": “Watermelon originates from the Western Regions, hence its name.” More compelling historical evidence comes from the 11th-century "Comprehensive Dictionary of Turkic Languages" by Mahmud al-Kashgari, which records that by the 10th century, “tawuz” (watermelon) was already widely cultivated in southern Xinjiang and Central Asia. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, archaeologists in Xinjiang unearthed watermelon seeds over 1,000 years old in the Astana Tombs in Turpan, further substantiating the accounts in these historical texts.

　　Introduction: Pinghu watermelon has a cultivation history of seven to eight hundred years. Known for its high sugar content, juiciness, fine flesh, and thin rind, it is hailed as the “Number One Melon of the South” and enjoys fame both domestically and abroad. During the Ming Dynasty, those grown near Hongni Weir were considered the best. In the early 20th century, the olive-shaped Malin melon was introduced, especially those produced near Caokuang Port outside the southern gate (now Shengli Township), which were famous and once exported to Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia. After the liberation, various melon varieties from other regions were introduced, changing the shape from long to round, commonly known as “Liberation Melon.” Starting in the 1960s, the Malin melon was replaced by superior new varieties of the “Zhongyu” series. In 1980, at the Zhejiang Province Watermelon Evaluation Conference, Pinghu’s “Zhongyu No. 1” won the title of “Top Prize.” In recent years, the “Pingyou No. 1” variety has been developed—crisp, juicy, sweet, early-maturing, and high-yielding—which has become the flagship variety of Pinghu watermelon. “Pingyou No. 1” won the first prize for quality at the Shanghai Economic Zone Watermelon Variety Evaluation and the Provincial Harvest Award in the Zhejiang Mid-season Watermelon Variety Regional Trial.