The Nanguo Pear

Anshan is known as the capital of iron and steel of China, for years this city in northeast and its citizens have devoted a lot for the economic development of the country. However the city has diversified its direction for better performance in recent years, boosting education facilities, promoting tourism and presenting unique local culture have taken a great scale of the pie so the people of the city also get a chance to shake off a little fixed character of 'iron'.


There is a national tour zone in the city, a mountain called 'Qianshan' as a short name of 'thousand lotus mountain, it is the only mountain in China that integrates Buddhism and Taoism which makes the mountain very distinguish and unique. Every year in May there will be an international tour festival with Qianshan mountain as the theme, tourist will be able to see the biggest natural Buddha made of stone and, as another courtesy of the host tourists are also able to pray in front of the world biggest Buddha of jade in the middle of downtown and Qiansahn mountain, how convenient! one tour, two spots, and it is still not the entire hospitality offered by the host, there is another special treat for visitors from the city and it is the only producing place of this treat in China. In short, it is a sort of delicious fruit: Nanguo pear.


Because of poor production, Nanguo pear is not as well-known as other pears in China like Gong (meaning 'tribute' here) pear, but it acquired a descent place out of the competition by extraordinary characters and as a matter of fact this kind of pears have been chosen to serve the national council during the right season, that might speak for the reputation.

So what is so special with this kind of pear? What makes it so marvelous to beat other contenders? Firstly, let's say that the origin of the pear is a pear tree growing on a hill in the country, about 10 km from the city. It seems only the soil up there is suitable for the growth of the pear, any attempt to transplant the pear to another place would end up as an unsuccessful result. The quality and taste of those 'moving out' breeds can only deceive those who never have tried the pears before, because the size, color and smell of the pear follow a certain rules so a person who ate the original pear before will immediately tell the truth, and it is the way since ever.



A normal Nanguo pear from the village and its neighborhood ought to weigh about 70 grams. It has a bright yellow color and very thin skin and the skin can be easily peeled off when the pear is mostly appropriate for eating. Thanks to its proper size one can just swallow a whole pear and the only thing that should be spitted out would be the seeds since the pulp is so soft and fresh. What impresses visitors more is the natural scent of the pear, normally the pear's scent will fill out a 15 square meters closed room within half an hour and it smells like a wonderful scent of liquor. Pitifully this experience is only available in this city so anyone who means to take a try will have to visit the city by self.