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Alice Yan

Beijing’s elderly residents are wreaking havoc on the city’s parks in pursuit of wild spring vegetables, a traditional favourite in China at this time of year.
In the capital’s sprawling Olympic Forest Park, people have been seen ignoring signs prohibiting the taking of fruits and vegetables and instead filling bags with their harvest, sometimes uprooting whole plants, according to ﻿Beijing News.
One woman told the newspaper she intended to pinch out tender leaves for salads, frying or chopping into stuffings for dumplings or meatballs.
“This vegetable tastes a bit bitter,” she was quoted as saying, “but, just because of this taste, it can reduce internal heat [a concept in traditional Chinese medicine]”.
Traditional Chinese medicine
The report said some people also washed their ill-gotten vegetables in the park’s toilets, again ignoring signs prohibiting the practice.
In Beijing’s Dongba Rural Park, the main edible attraction has been Chinese violet cress – known as eryuelan in Mandarin – which grows near trees.
Visitors have uprooted many of the plants, with one elderly man, surnamed Zhang, telling the newspaper it was the best time to harvest eryuelan because it was at its most delicious.

A gardener at the park said people either picked the wild vegetables or used knives or keys to dig them up.
“They leave a mess on the grassland,” the gardener said.
“The park’s security guards try to stop them but the park is so big and there are so many people behaving that way. They aren’t able to stop them all.”
Beijing Municipal Greenery and Park Bureau vowed last year to curb the spring digging spree for wild vegetables in parks to protect public green areas, according to the Legal Evening News.
While causing damage to public parks carries a penalty of 50-100 yuan (US$7.50-15), it appears the rule has not been implemented well.




Many of the culprits believe wild vegetables are more nutritious than their cultivated counterparts but Hu Bin, a botanist from the Beijing Agriculture Bureau, said this was mistaken.
Hu said some wild vegetables were hard to distinguish from similar plants which were poisonous. He also warned that wild vegetables growing next to roadside trees would be affected when the trees were sprayed with pesticides.
A manager at Olympic Forest Park said picking wild vegetables was also discouraged because the irrigation water used was not clean enough.
“It is not up to the drinking water standard and it is collected from household and industrial waste water,” the manager was quoted as saying.
The popularity of spring wild vegetables is not confined to Beijing, nor to public parks, with many people across China taking to the internet for tips on the best places to find them in cities.
One internet user in Lanzhou, Gansu province in northwest China, wrote on Weibo, the Twitter-like microblogging platform, that she had seen elderly women using small shovels to dig up wild vegetables on the lawns of her residential block every day this spring.
“After they have left, the lawns look ugly,” she said.


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China society

Spring greens craze in China picks holes in public parks

Beijing residents help themselves to wild Chinese violet cress – known as eryuelan in Mandarin – growing in public parks. Photo: Weibo

Elderly residents Êof Beijing are ignoring warnings and flocking to city parks in search of wild vegetables, Êin the mistaken belief they are more nutritious than vegetables sold in markets and are free from pesticides.ÊPhoto: Wikipedia

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China

People & Culture

The hunt for wild vegetables is taking its annual toll on Beijing’s green spaces
Some people are digging up whole plants in the belief they are more nutritious than cultivated varieties


The hunt for wild vegetables is taking its annual toll on Beijing’s green spaces. Some people are digging up whole plants in the belief they are more nutritious than cultivated varieties.


China food safety

Spring greens craze in China picks holes in public parks

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}The hunt for wild vegetables is taking its annual toll on Beijing’s green spaces Some people are digging up whole plants in the belief they are more nutritious than cultivated varieties

The hunt for wild vegetables is taking its annual toll on Beijing’s green spaces

Some people are digging up whole plants in the belief they are more nutritious than cultivated varieties