Cherry Picking Festival 采樱桃节

For a few weeks in May, the cherry trees over Laoshan swell with fruit. It is a considerable drive out from Shinan District of Qingdao, but we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by our translation teacher, Mr Luo. 

There were make-shift stalls set up on the side of the motorway for several miles before even reaching the mountains. As we drove past, the pedlars would shake their branches of cherries out into the road over handwritten signs saying '樱桃'. Mr Luo took us deep into Laoshan, to a place called 我乐 where a friend kept a plot of cherry trees. 

Stands selling cherries every few metres

A 我乐 (wo-le) hillside 

It was a muggy day, the air was warm and thick with pollutants, even though the teachers seemed intent on proclaiming the freshness of the mountain air.

Laoshan Cherries are much smaller than the ones we are accustomed to in the West, and are bright, vivid red, similar to Glace cherries. They are sweet, but not excessively so, to the extent that you can pick at a constant rate for over half an hour and not feel full or sick.

The trees do not grow very high - easy pickings!

These cherries are smaller than plums

Mr Luo then treated us to a welcoming lunch with his family. The meal was bursting with traditional Shandong and Qingdao dishes, but as Alice and Will don't eat seafood, the onus was on me to eat the majority of the squid and fish. Not that I'm complaining. To finish off the meal, Alice and I went for a short stroll up one of the country roads. Every house seemed to have several of their own trees, and numerous patches for growing vegetables. We came to the top of a peak and found two young girls with bamboo sticks stoking the water of a pond full of frogs. I remember this because they were the first people in China to talk to me without first expressing some shock at my foreign appearance (even though it is slight), and to talk without hesitation that I, as a foreigner, would not understand. Neither of them cared that Alice and I were foreign but could speak Chinese, which was nice for once.

On departure, each of us were given a large box of cherries to take home as a gift. All in all, a very successful day picking and eating cherries.