Qiaotouhe Radish

Qiaotouhe Radish

　　Qiaotouhe Radish is a specialty of Qiaotouhe Town, Lianyuan City, Loudi, Hunan Province.

　　“When Qiaotouhe radishes hit the market, pharmacy owners start packing up; Qiaotouhe radishes need no oil — they drip from both ends when picked up with chopsticks.” This saying was popular across Hunan before liberation, showing just how famous Qiaotouhe is, how renowned its vegetables are, and how even more famous its radishes are.

　　The radishes and Chinese cabbage produced in Qiaotouhe Town, Lianyuan City, are well known far and wide. The town has fertile soil, with the Lianshui and Meishui rivers flowing east to west, creating moderate humidity. The vegetables and fruits grown here are fresh, juicy, and rich in rare minerals such as selenium. The town currently has 15 specialized vegetable-growing villages, 27,930 mu of specialized vegetable fields, 2,580 mu of demonstration bases, 240 mu of high-standard seedling centers, 110 vegetable greenhouses, and produces 320,000 tons of seasonal vegetables annually. Major varieties include radishes, Chinese cabbage, green beans, chili peppers, yardlong beans, cauliflower, and over 20 other types. In 1995, the town was named one of “Hunan’s Top Ten Vegetable Bases,” in 2002 it was recognized as a “Safe Vegetable Production Demonstration Area,” and in 2004 it earned the title “Ten-Thousand-Mu Pollution-Free Vegetable Base.”