Xiecun "Duck Head Green" Guiwei Lychee

Xiecun "Duck Head Green" Guiwei Lychee

　　Every year in June and July, as cicadas chirp and lychees ripen, the air is filled with the fragrance of premium fruits. There are many varieties of lychee, but the most widely recognized as the best-tasting is the Guiwei. In Xiecun Village, Guanxu Town, Deqing County, there is a unique variety of Guiwei lychee known as "Duck Head Green." Owing to its distinctive geographical location, climate conditions, along with its crisp flesh, juicy texture, sweet taste, and osmanthus-like aroma, it surpasses ordinary Guiwei lychees.

　　The Xiecun Guiwei lychee has a bright red peel shaped like a long heart, featuring a distinct boundary line and dark green patches—this is what makes its appearance unique, and from this comes the name "Duck Green Head." Additionally, most of the fruits have a smaller fruit attached to them, creating a pair of “mandarin duck fruits”—one large, one small. Hence, it is also fondly referred to as the "Mandarin Duck Guiwei." The mandarin duck Guiwei lychee from Xiecun, with its long cultivation history, limited yield, and superior quality, has always been a beloved summer fruit among locals.

　　Local villagers told reporters that behind this famous lychee variety lies a story of gratitude. It is said that over a hundred years ago, a renowned traditional Chinese medicine practitioner named Xie Lanxiu came from Xiecun. He cured a wealthy man from Zengcheng, Guangzhou, of a persistent and previously untreatable back pain. Deeply grateful, the wealthy man gifted Xie two rare lychee saplings—plants he rarely gave away. These came from Zengcheng, a famous lychee-growing region in Lingnan. The high-quality saplings were thus transplanted over a hundred kilometers away to Xiecun in Guanxu Town. Unexpectedly, Deqing, located just south of the Tropic of Cancer, proved to be highly suitable for lychee cultivation, yielding bountiful harvests.

　　Why does the Guiwei lychee from Xiecun have such a unique flavor? To uncover the secret, over ten years ago, an evaluation team composed of experts and professors from the Provincial Department of Agriculture, Huazhong Agricultural University, the Fruit Tree Research Institute of the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as well as local horticulturists from Deqing, conducted a comprehensive analysis of the flavor and characteristics of Xiecun’s Guiwei lychee. This included soil sample testing and analysis of the fruit’s sugar content. Experts concluded that Xiecun Guiwei lychee has a sugar content of 20–21 degrees; a stone-free rate of 97.8%, and an edible portion making up 75%–78% of the total fruit weight.

　　The two original Guiwei lychee mother trees that Xie Lanxiu brought back over a century ago are still thriving today, bearing abundant fruit year after year. Meanwhile, the entire Xiecun Guiwei lychee orchard now consists of over thirty lychee trees, making it a treasured asset of the village. According to local elders, as early as the early days of liberation, Xiecun Guiwei lychee, as a premium fruit, had already gained some fame, with fruit merchants from various places competing to buy and sell it. In the mid-1990s, one single lychee tree in the Xiecun Guiwei lychee orchard reportedly set a record by yielding several thousand pounds of fruit in a single day, becoming a much-told tale.

　　In recent years, to allow more people to enjoy the unique flavor of Xiecun Guiwei lychee, the village has hosted multiple "Lychee Culture Festivals," attracting many visitors.

　　Today, this premium lychee variety, cultivated by the Qing Dynasty scholar Xie Lanxiu, has been refined and optimized through generations. It has become a branded fruit of Guanxu Town in Deqing and has even won awards, including the Excellent Product Award at the China Agricultural Expo for tropical fruit products and the Outstanding Product Award at the Guangdong Youth "Three Highs" Agricultural Expo.

　　(Reporter Huang Lijun, Correspondent Yang Fang)