Junxian Yaotou Red Pears

Junxian Yaotou Red Pears

　　Junxian Yaotou Red Pears are a specialty of Shenyao Tou Village, Wangzhuang Township, Junxian County, Hebi City, Henan Province. Yaotou Red Pears have extremely high medicinal value. Among all pear varieties, "Yaotou Red Pears" are uniquely high-quality and are remarkably effective in treating illnesses such as typhoid fever, asthma, tracheitis, and the common cold. Stories of Yaotou Red Pears healing and saving lives are widely circulated among the people.

　　This summer, over 50 acres of red pear trees planted in Shenyao Tou Village, Wangzhuang Township, Junxian County, have entered their peak fruiting period. The once nearly extinct local fruit specialty, "Yaotou Red Pears," has been revived thanks to the efforts of forestry technicians and fruit growers in Wangzhuang Township. This year’s yield is excellent, with a single tree producing over 400 fruits, all retaining their medicinal properties—an astonishing feat.

　　Historically, Wangzhuang Township in Junxian County was described as having "pear orchards at Yaotou stretching three li, their canopies dense and interwoven, shading the sky." The unique geographical conditions give Yaotou Red Pears their high medicinal value. Among all pear varieties, "Yaotou Red Pears" are uniquely high-quality and are remarkably effective in treating illnesses such as typhoid fever, asthma, tracheitis, and the common cold. Stories of Yaotou Red Pears healing and saving lives are widely circulated among the people. However, during the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of acres of pear orchards in the township were destroyed under the slogan of "creating vast fertile fields." By the beginning of this century, only seven aging and ailing Yaotou Red Pear trees remained, no longer bearing fruit.

　　Forestry technicians in Wangzhuang Township recognized the medicinal value of Yaotou Red Pears from their history and understood the importance of rescuing the pear variety and developing high-quality red pears. In recent years, they have actively taken measures to save this rare species. They invited experienced pear orchard farmers and reached out to the provincial forestry school, using modern scientific techniques. Through methods such as bud scoring, grafting, scion insertion, and soil improvement on the seven surviving old Yaotou Red Pear trees, they successfully cultivated over 10,000 red pear saplings.

　　Seeing the potential for Yaotou Red Pears to be revived, Zhao Tongyou, a villager from Shenyao Tou Village, Wangzhuang Township, who had previously worked in construction elsewhere, resolutely returned to his hometown with funds to join fellow villagers in the rescue and development of red pears. He invested over 500,000 yuan to build the township’s first pear cold storage facility and signed a cooperative agreement with a beverage company in Guangdong to develop health-focused red pear juice, laying full groundwork for comprehensive red pear development. Officials in charge of forestry in Wangzhuang Township expressed confidence that, given the strong enthusiasm of Shenyao Tou Village residents in developing and planting red pear trees, they could expand and strengthen the Yaotou Red Pear brand as a distinctive fruit product within a few years.