Haw rolls and haw slices

Last updated 2026-11-08 — Haw rolls and haw slices are traditional foods from Hequ County, primarily made from the fruit of the hawthorn tree (Heihong tree), with a long history. According to the Hequ County Annals, as early as the Ming Dynasty, people in Hequ were making haw rolls and haw slices from Heihong fruit. In ancient times, the Hequ area was a forested region, where the Heihong tree was originally a wild species. Now, the Heihong tree has become a drought-resistant, disaster-tolerant, anti-corrosive, and highly vigorous mountain fruit tree in the Hequ region. In Liugu Village, Hequ, there is still an 800-year-old Heihong tree that continues to bloom and bear fruit. The Heihong fruit is dark red in color, sweet and sour in taste, rich in nutrients such as vitamin C, and offers benefits such as strengthening the spleen, aiding digestion, and improving appetite. Making haw rolls is a simple process: ripe Heihong fruit is boiled until soft in a pot, then mashed into a paste, spread thinly on clean, smooth wooden boards, dried in the sun, and then cut into various sizes for consumption. The method for making haw slices is even simpler: the stems and flower caps of ripe Heihong fruit are removed, the fruit is halved, and then strung up with thread to dry in the sun. Haw rolls and haw slices are characterized by their sweet and sour taste, ability to stimulate saliva and quench thirst, as well as their benefits for strengthening the spleen and aiding digestion. Editor: 208 (Hequ)