CHAPTER Vi 



THE SOUTH CHINA KEUIOX, THE HOME 



OF THE 

 LYCIIEE AND LUNGAN 



The South China region, as usually considered, comprises 

 six of the provinces of China, with a total area of 475,000 square 

 miles and a population of 92,000,000. There is grown in this 

 region a wide range of grain, vegetables and fruit. The lychee is 

 decidedly the most popular fruit of the whole section. But it cannot 

 be successfully grown in some of these provinces, only partially so 

 in others, and extensively in but two, Kwangtung \J$|jfiJ and Fukien 

 (JSift). A few districts of Kwangsi (j^H9) produce the lychee but 

 not in great quantities. Chinese literature points to the fact that in 

 Yunnan (f$|) it has been successfully grown in only one district. 

 Szechwan IHJlp to the northwest, and geographically not included 

 in the provinces of South China, produces an inferior type. In 

 Cochin-China to the south, now a French possession, the fruit is 

 known to do well and it will grow as far south as Siam. It is also 

 produced in Formosa, the island belonging to Japan off the coast of 

 Fukien province and it thrives exceedingly well in Hainan, the island 

 belonging to China off her south-east coast. The lungan, not so 

 highly prized as the lychee, is nevertheless usually found contiguous to it. 



Kwangtung and Fukien are the two great lychee and lungan 

 provinces. They cover an area of 150,000, square miles and they 

 support a population of 55,000,000. Cantonese and Fukienese 

 greatly prize the lychee and have consequently highly developed it. 

 A study of the history and literature of these two provinces interest- 

 ingly discloses that for centuries these people have striven with one 

 another for supremacy in lychee culture and in the export trade. It 

 is a fact worthy of note that in both these provinces the districts 

 which have been most successful are those which, at low altitudes, 

 lie close to the rivers and coast. The world- wide distribution of 

 these fruits in dried and canned form is accounted for by the fact 

 that these districts are those from which have come most of the 

 Chinese emigrants. 



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