In Zhongning, the "red treasure" goji berry, from wild to domesticated, has a cultivation history that can be traced back to the Xixia Dynasty, when it was a minor player in market transactions. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was not only an annual tribute to the imperial court but also sold far and wide, becoming a famous traditional Chinese medicine. In the past ten years or so, the planting of goji berries in the surrounding areas centered on Zhongning has developed rapidly. The Zhongning goji berry market is the national distribution center for goji berries, with goji berries from various producing areas concentrated in Zhongning before being sold nationwide. The industry chain has created legends and sustains the livelihoods of the local people. This torrent of plump, translucent goji berries surges with the tides of time.

　　The Grade Code of Goji Berries

　　Pulling apart a pile of goji berries, a sharp-eyed woman can immediately pick out the shriveled and gray ones. Goji berries collected from various places in Zhongning are further processed according to market demand. Sorting and packaging are ongoing processes. Mountains of red goji berries pile up on the workbench, and the best are selected from the best. "The best are the tribute berries, 180." During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhongning goji berries were "tribute berries," an ancient appellation still used today.

　　180, 250, 280... Zhongning people have a system of markings for goji berries, similar to a code. Generally, the grading standard is based on the number of berries per 50 grams. The best tribute berries have 180-220 berries, followed by goji kings with 250-280 berries, special grade with 300-350 berries, grade A with 400-450 berries, and grade B with 580 berries. Uniform size, no dry seeds, oil spots, impurities, insect damage, or mildew are required.

　　This grading process is underway in the sorting workshop, where women from nearby villages work. Aunt Cui has been "mingling" among the red berries for nearly 30 years. Her eyesight is failing, her hands and feet are slower than before, and her old waist is still holding up, but she has to stand up and stretch after sitting for a long time. The women in the workshop all have rosy complexions and bright eyes. "Haha, except for making soup at home, we never eat goji berries; we don't have that habit." Sorting is a silent job. When strangers arrive, the women look up, smile, and then return to their work.

　　Of course, "it's not that the larger the goji berry, the better." Growers say that large goji berries are not easy to dry. Xie Shiyi, a goji berry cultivation expert in Zhongning, says, "With advancements in cultivation techniques, today's goji berries are more than twice as large as those in the past." He uses his thumb to indicate the distance his little fingernail can stretch. "People in the past didn't know much about pruning, let alone Bordeaux mixture." Today's yields are unimaginable compared to the past. Goji berries are divided into summer and autumn crops. In the 1960s and 70s, the total yield per mu for the two seasons was less than 1,000 kilograms. In recent years, the high-yield and high-quality varieties "Ningqi No. 1" and "Ningqi No. 2" have been successfully developed and promoted, along with reasonable high-density planting techniques for different growth periods, increasing yields several times over.

　　He Left Roots and Leaves for Zhongning Goji Berries

　　When it comes to those who have contributed to the cultivation of Zhongning goji berries, Zhang Zuohan must be mentioned. He is the inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage of traditional goji berry cultivation techniques in Zhongning County. "He left roots and leaves for Zhongning goji berries," says Xie Shiyi. Holding on to the fundamentals during the most difficult times is precious. During the Anti-Japanese War, the sales of goji berries were blocked, customers were lost, prices fell, and farmers dug up their goji berries and switched to growing food crops. Zhang Zuohan, however, not only kept all his goji berry plants but also searched for better varieties.

　　The goji berries from Zhoutashang Township in Zhongning County have fewer seeds, larger berries, more flesh, and a redder color. Each berry is like a pearl, making them the most sought-after goji berries. The most widely circulated story is that in 1938, 28-year-old Zhang Zuohan used one silver dollar to exchange for three goji berry plants, spending 120 silver dollars to buy 360 plants and planting them on more than two mu of land. Through careful cultivation, Zhang Zuohan's goji berries grew better and better, and people called this variety "hemp leaf goji berry." Many high-yield goji berry varieties today are derived from the "hemp leaf goji berry."

　　"During the People's Commune period, the planting area of Zhongning goji berries reached nearly 8,000 mu. In the original old planting areas, goji berries were the main economic source, purchased and managed by the traditional Chinese medicine company, with unified purchase and sales, distributed throughout the country. In 1961, the Zhongning Goji Berry Production Management Group was established, and almost every team had a goji berry orchard." Xie Shiyi said. At that time, each commune had its own goji berry production "local expert," and Zhang Zuohan was one of them. He accumulated experience in cultivating goji berry tree shapes: different varieties require different degrees of ventilation and light, three-story, umbrella-shaped, natural semicircular, conical, etc. Zhang Zuohan had the hands of a magician, with different pruning styles for different varieties.

　　Goji Berries Are Not Difficult to Grow

　　Drought-resistant, barren-resistant, and saline-alkali-resistant, with strong adaptability and reproductive ability. "Goji berries are easy to grow and maintain." Xie Shiyi says, "Plant the seedlings in spring, and there will be a harvest in the same year, although the harvest is generally low. It usually takes two years to enter the high-yield period."

　　It sounds like goji berries are naturally hardy, with a short growth cycle and quick results, not difficult to grow. However, this has created a problem: "Generally, there is a trough every six or seven years. For example, if goji berries sell well for two years, everyone plants them. After a few years, the market is saturated, prices fall, farmers find it not worthwhile, and they remove the goji berry seedlings and plant food crops. When prices rise again, there is another wave of large-scale goji berry planting."

　　This situation has been common in the history of goji berry cultivation in Zhongning, with the law of value constantly playing a regulatory role. On the other hand, because goji berries have a fast metabolism and are constantly regenerating, even though Zhongning has a history of goji berry cultivation for hundreds of years, there is not a single old goji berry tree in the entire county to build a goji berry museum.

　　In August and September, the color of Zhongning goji berries turns orange-red, the berries begin to soften, and the stems begin to loosen. This is the best time for harvesting. During the peak fruiting season, harvesting is done every 6-7 days. Harvesting too early or too late will affect the quality. "For goji berries from Qinghai and Xinjiang, with more sunlight and a drier climate, the harvesting cycle can be slightly longer."

　　Annual climates vary, causing the harvesting season to shift. For example, if the weather is warm and the summer fruit harvesting is about half a month earlier than in previous years, it is generally beneficial to the development of autumn fruit branches and fruits; in previous years, autumn fruits were often damaged by early frost, resulting in reduced yields. If the autumn fruits are harvested earlier, the possibility of frost damage is reduced, and the autumn fruit yield will increase. Xie Shiyi said: "Other producing areas have autumn fruits every year, with yields accounting for 20%-30%, but the harvesting period is 20 days later than Zhongning, the yield is small, and it is labor-intensive and time-consuming, so few people harvest them, but they will also be harvested at high prices."

　　Goji berries, like red carnelians, tremble on the branches. Harvesting is the most labor-intensive part of the industry chain. "When harvesting goji berries, it is also the wheat harvest season, labor is tight, and sometimes it costs 1.5 to 2 yuan to harvest one kilogram, and even then, it's hard to find people to do the work." In nearby Guyuan County, farmers do not have the habit of harvesting autumn fruits, so they do not fertilize or apply pesticides to the goji berry trees after the summer fruit harvest. Although there were already goji berries on the trees at that time, firstly, the goji berries without fertilization had very few fruits, and secondly, the lack of pesticides made them easy to be eaten by pests and diseases. In addition, it was the sunflower harvesting season locally, and a large amount of labor was used to harvest sunflowers, so even if there were good goji berries, no one harvested them.

　　Drying yards are generally located in sunny open spaces. The drying tool is called a fruit rack, which consists of two wooden frames with reed mats or bamboo curtains sandwiched between them, and the two ends are raised. The harvested fresh fruits are evenly spread on the fruit rack. In case of cloudy weather, move or pat the bottom of the fruit rack to prevent mildew. Under normal circumstances, it generally takes about 10 days to dry into dried fruit.

　　Goji berries radiate from Zhongning and are distributed throughout the region.

　　Radiating from Zhongning, Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang now have large areas of goji berry cultivation. "In Zhongning, there is no more land around the county town, and the areas where goji berry cultivation has increased significantly include Guyuan, Pingluo, and Huinong in Ningxia, Jingtai and Jingyuan in Gansu, Bayannaoer in Inner Mongolia, and Golmud in Qinghai. Eighty percent of the goji berries in Qinghai are planted by people from Zhongning." This is what Xie Shiyi refers to as "young couples with tight budgets going to the Qaidam Basin to contract dozens of mu of land to grow goji berries, and their financial situation will improve in a few years." "The land there is cheap, and it is rich in potassium, so potassium fertilizer is not needed. But relatively speaking, it is more alkaline."

　　Ningxia is the hometown of goji berries. In recent years, the government has also encouraged goji berry cultivation, and it has developed rapidly in suitable areas, with Guyuan and Huinong becoming two major producing areas. Correspondingly, goji berry nurseries have also become a derivative industry. "Goji berry seedlings in Qinghai and Gansu all come from Zhongning, and the experts are also from Zhongning."

　　Goji berries have also been packaged and interpreted with modern consumption concepts. Wild black goji berries, the size of black peppercorns, have become a hot topic in the past few years as a concept of originality, selling for over 1,000 yuan per kilogram. People in Zhongning believe that "they are for gifts," and Xie Shiyi believes that "it's not that mysterious, and the nutritional value is similar to ordinary goji berries." In Zhongning, we also saw out-of-season goji berries, cultivated in greenhouses. It is said that last year, fresh goji berries sold for 1,200 yuan per kilogram in Shanghai, and people in Zhongning estimate that the price this year should be lower than last year.

　　Value can only be realized through circulation. In the planned economy era, each team had goji berry orchards, and handing in goji berries was equivalent to handing in grain tax. There were skilled workers like Zhang Zuohan, and there were also people with sharp minds who dared to be the first to try new things. Xie Shiyi said that he had a cousin who was a team leader in the late 1970s. Due to refined management, he harvested several hundred kilograms more goji berries after handing in the public quota that year. He transported the surplus to other places to sell, bought more than ten horses to strengthen the village's farming and transportation capacity, and was sentenced to thirteen years for "speculation and profiteering."

　　There is also Zhou Jinko, the goji berry king who was the first to sell Zhongning goji berries to Guangzhou and Southeast Asia. His name has now become a brand of Zhongning goji berries, and it has also developed deep-processed products, such as goji berry wine and goji berry honey. As a trendsetter of the times, he was also sentenced to four years in prison in 1980 for "speculation and profiteering," which became a landmark event in the debate about "capitalist or socialist" in Ningxia at that time.

　　A year later, the state first proposed that "the individual economy of a certain range of laborers is a beneficial supplement to the public ownership economy." Zhou Jinko was exonerated and quickly hailed as a "capable person." Nine years later, he was honored and attended the 40th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People's Republic of China as a representative of Ningxia, and was received by central leaders. Today, this seventy-year-old man is still healthy and humble, and he looks like an ordinary old man from Northwest China, and he is reluctant to talk much about the past.

　　■ Reading the City

　　Wealth and ideas are both mediated by goji berries.

　　Zhongning has always been a gathering and distribution center for goji berry trading. From the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China period, its transportation routes and methods were: the northern route was by water transport along the Yellow River to Baotou, and then by camel or train to Beiping and Tianjin, and then from Tianjin to various provinces or exported to Southeast Asia. During the Anti-Japanese War, Baotou fell, and the northern route was interrupted, so the southern route was used, with large carts and camels transporting to Xi'an and then transferring by train to various places.

　　There was another way: carrying on shoulders. The boxes containing goji berries, two boxes on the shoulders, each weighing more than 100 kilograms. Every year during the goji berry harvesting season, poor young and strong men from Hunan and Mianyang, Sichuan, traveled thousands of miles to Zhongning, with more than 100 people every year. They carried local specialties such as tea, cigarettes, silk handkerchiefs, silk threads, and wooden combs, sold them, and then bought goji berries, packed them in boxes, and carried them back. On their way home, they chose auspicious days, and they traveled in groups, never alone, to avoid bandits in the wilderness.

　　From Zhongning to Pingliang is eight stations, which takes eight days. Pingliang is a large station. After resting for one or two days here, the merchants from Hunan and Sichuan parted ways. Merchants from Hunan went east to Xi'an to take the train or walk forward, while merchants from Sichuan went south through Huating, Longxian, and Qianyang to Baoji, and entered Sichuan through the plank road from Hanzhong.

　　One day in Zhongning, at noon, the sun was just right, and many people gathered near the central square of the county town, sitting around listening to Qin opera, singing "Su Wu Shepherding Sheep." At the tragic part, the voice was sharply torn: "I would like to throw myself into the North Sea, but I am afraid that I will be useless. I have no choice but to endure hunger, cold, and wind and snow, and endure it temporarily. When will the heavens open their eyes..." So one can also imagine those goji berry merchants carrying red fruits on their shoulders, traversing the long road over the Qinling Mountains.

　　Zhongning, the hometown of goji berries, has always been at the center of exchange, bringing not only wealth, but also a rich and diverse range of flavors and open and vibrant ideas.

　　Zhongning is the earliest and most mature county in Ningxia in developing the non-public economy. Ma Wenjun, member of the Standing Committee of the Zhongning County Committee and director of the Propaganda Department, said that when the spring breeze of reform blew, the "subconscious" of commerce was awakened overnight, so that many people in Zhongning had no shyness when they made their first cry.