By Xie Yanan
What fruit can you buy with 50 yen in Japan? A small tangerine, maybe. In my hometown, you can buy a whole watermelon!
Hi. My name is Xie Yanan. I am a graduate student studying laws at the University of Shimane. My hometown is in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in China. Ningxia is famous for watermelons and grapes. The climate of Ningxia is perfect for growing fruits. It is very hot during day and very cold during night. So the fruits become very sweet.
China is the country with the most watermelons planted in the world. In summer, watermelons become very cheap in China. In my hometown, when watermelons are the cheapest in summer, it only costs a few yuan per kilogram. If exchanges it into Japanese yen, it may be less than 50 JPY for a whole watermelon. Even in winter a whole watermelon is only 600 Japanese yen.
My family usually stores a lot of watermelons in the warehouse in summer up to the point that they can cover the ground of the storeroom. After returning home from the outside, my family and I used to cut a watermelon in half, and everyone takes a half and eat it with a spoon. The cold sweet juice is better than the air conditioner.
In addition to watermelons, grapes are also famous in my hometown. The latitude of Ningxia is the same as that of France, which is a very suitable condition for growing grapes. Because of this, wine production is flourishing in Ningxia. In recent years, more and more international tourists, including Japanese, are coming to Ningxia. Some of them come here are to attend international conferences, others are for cultural exchange activities. I have also participated in many of these activities as a volunteer. Then I found that many overseas guests choose to buy a bottle of wine as a souvenir when they leave Ningxia.
Although my hometown is generally known for the ancient city of Xixia Dynasty, it is also famous for sweet watermelons and grapes. I hope someday you can visit Ningxia and enjoy a great feast!
Photo by “June 7, 2013” by osseous is licensed under CC BY 2.0
