The ecological island is blessed with natural abundance, and the harvest festival shares joy.

The opening ceremony of the 2019 Shanghai Chongming “Orange-Golden, Crab-Plump, Rice-Aromatic” Cultural Tourism Festival kicks off.

Along with the inauguration ceremony of the Chongming Clear-Water Crab harvest.

With the in-depth advancement of the construction of Chongming as a world-class ecological island, the development of towns has reached new heights, beautiful countryside has been painted anew, and people’s lives have taken on a fresh look. Cultural tourism, as a “happiness industry” that improves people’s livelihoods, is an important part of continuously enhancing people’s sense of “happiness” and “gain.” The “Orange-Golden, Crab-Plump, Rice-Aromatic” Cultural Tourism Festival, as a key brand within the Chongming Ecotourism Culture Festival, has been successfully selected as one of the 100 rural cultural activities for the 2019 “Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival,” and it is also the only festival event in Shanghai to be included.

On October 18, the opening ceremony of the 2019 Shanghai Chongming “Orange-Golden, Crab-Plump, Rice-Aromatic” Cultural Tourism Festival and the inauguration event of the Chongming Clear-Water Crab harvest were held at Baodao Crab Farm in Luhua Town. At the event, a dazzling array of performances, a grand scene of crab farmers starting their harvest, the exciting selection of the “Crab King” and “Crab Queen,” and a colorful market of Chongming’s premium agricultural products under the “Nong Hao Wei” (Good Farm Taste) brand caught everyone’s eye. Media platforms such as “Knews24” and “RoundDot Live” provided full online live broadcasts of the event, allowing those who couldn’t attend to still experience Chongming’s ecological charm and the festive atmosphere on-site. Meanwhile, leveraging the massive data and professional team of “Douyin” for promotion, the event gained greater exposure and traffic support.

Chongming Clear-Water Crabs are known for their green shells, white bellies, golden claws, and yellow fuzz, and they have long been beloved for their rich roe and delicious taste. The day of the harvest ceremony is the perfect time to catch and enjoy crabs. During the “first net of crabs” fishing segment, crab farmers took fishing boats into the crab ponds. Each team selected larger male and female crabs from their catch to be weighed separately, ultimately determining the “Crab King” and “Crab Queen.” At the same time, on the opening day of the festival, Baodao Crab Industry’s online store simultaneously launched a limited-time promotional channel for the most official and convenient way to pre-order and purchase Chongming Clear-Water Crabs, enabling the brand’s avid fans to place orders quickly and easily to satisfy their cravings.

Chongming is the birthplace of the Chinese mitten crab in the Yangtze River system, and Chongming Clear-Water Crabs are one of the island’s most distinctive industries. In recent years, through more scientific farming methods, Chongming Clear-Water Crabs have long shed the notion that “Chongming crabs don’t grow big.” They are now comparable to Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs in both size and market price, and many seasoned food connoisseurs believe that Clear-Water Crabs, which grow in the brackish waters where freshwater and seawater meet, have a uniquely delicious flavor.

Huang Chun, Chairman of Chongming Baodao Crab Industry Co., Ltd. and President of the Shanghai River Crab Industry Association, explained that clear-water crabs prefer to live in clean and clear water bodies and require a lot of aquatic plants to create a suitable growing environment. Since last year, Baodao Crab Industry has been developing a roughly 140-acre “crab forest”—with 8,000 pond cypress and bald cypress trees planted in the water and on three small man-made islands—to provide an optimal growing environment for the farmed Clear-Water Crabs. The crab farm has also laid wooden walkways on the water surface, hidden among the trees, creating a unique landscape where “crabs swim in the water and people walk on the water.” “The cypress trees change colors throughout the seasons—green, red, yellow—and visitors can stroll through the crab forest to enjoy the scenery, paddle a wooden boat on the water, taste crabs at the crab farm, and learn about crab culture,” said Huang Chun. “This adds value to the product and boosts benefits through ecology.”

This year’s “crab forest” is an innovation based on the original concept, and another innovative internal circulation ecological crab farming model—the “flowing water crab farming” model—has also been explored this year in the 600-acre crab ponds at Baodao Crab Farm. Moving forward, Huang Chun plans to upgrade the content of the existing crab culture museum at the base to enrich the visitor experience and improve service quality.

The Chongming Clear-Water Crab industry is continuously exploring ecological farming models, shaping its brand, and increasing its market share on the basis of its current strengths. Meanwhile, the other two major agricultural highlights of Chongming—“chemical-free” rice and citrus fruits—are also striving to move toward “refinement.” Starting last year, Chongming proactively aligned with the highest standards, launching a 10,000-mu “chemical-free” rice cultivation model across the district for the first time—without chemical pesticides or fertilizers—to promote the upgrade of the green rice industry. In recent years, Luhua Town has worked to enhance the added value of its citrus industry and reshape its brand image through planting new citrus varieties, refined management, and developing deep processing. This cultural tourism festival serves as a concentrated external promotion and showcase of Chongming’s Clear-Water Crabs, “chemical-free” rice, and citrus industries. In addition to sampling delicious food, visitors can also explore the special products at the market, participate in parent-child fun runs, join the “Crab” Culinary Competition, and enjoy a variety of other exciting activities, providing them with a richer and higher-quality cultural tourism experience.

This 2019 Shanghai Chongming “Orange-Golden, Crab-Plump, Rice-Aromatic” Cultural Tourism Festival takes oranges, crabs, and rice as its medium, and culture as its vehicle. With a proactive attitude, it embraces the new media era, gathers guests from all directions, pools wisdom from all corners, and explores the path of developing Chongming’s tourism and cultural brand. With a brand-new service philosophy and strong market reputation, it firmly establishes Chongming Island’s ecological brand and creates a new cultural tourism calling card for Chongming—leisure-oriented, green, healthy, positive, and high-quality.