Yuqing Red Kumquat

Yuqing Red Kumquat

　　Yuqing Red Kumquat is a specialty of Yuqing County, Zunyi City, Guizhou Province. The red kumquat is known for its thin skin, juicy flesh, sweet taste with tender peel, both edible and medicinal qualities, vibrant color, and easy preservation, making it an ideal choice for family consumption and a thoughtful gift for friends and relatives.

　　The "Red Kumquat" is also called the "Red Army Kumquat." According to the Yuqing County Annals, during the Long March when the Red Army passed through Yuqing, over a hundred injured or separated Red Army soldiers were captured and killed by local reactionary forces. Among them, one young Red Army soldier was rescued by a young monk from a temple on Hengdan Mountain in Longjia and was shown the way to Zunyi. With tears in his eyes, the young soldier took dozens of kumquat seeds from his pocket and asked the young monk to plant them where the Red Army soldiers had fallen as a memorial. The young monk followed the soldier’s instructions, nurtured the seeds into seedlings, and planted them all. Every autumn thereafter, the trees bore golden-red kumquats. The young monk told the nearby poor villagers that these were oranges nourished by the blood of the Red Army, and thus named them "Red Army Kumquats." To avoid retaliation and destruction by reactionary forces, people later renamed the "Red Army Kumquat" as the "Red Kumquat." Today, red kumquats have spread across the entire county, forming a major local industry. Whenever the fruits ripen, people are reminded of the Red Army soldiers and the "Red Army Kumquats" of those days.