Mushrooms on the Move High-speed trains get fresh produce from isolated parts of Yunnan Province to market quickly
At the crack of dawn, Chen Xiaochong is up and about to head for his woodlot in Chengjiang County in Yuxi City at the central part of Yunnan Province. Every morning at this time of year, Chen ventures deep into the forests at first light, looking for wild edible mushrooms, one of the hidden treasures of the province in southwest China.
Two years ago, Chen contracted the management right of a 500-mu (33.33-hectare) forest lot in Yuxi. The area is rich in wild mushrooms that can only be harvested from May to October each year. Once picked, the fresh mushrooms are immediately sent to Kunming, the provincial capital, 95 km from Yuxi, to be sold and shipped.
In the middle of July, the Mushuihua Wild Mushroom Trading Center in Kunming comes alive in the early hours of the morning. After buying wild mushrooms from farmers like Chen, small traders then sell batches of tens or even hundreds of kilograms to wholesalers. In front of the trading center, couriers are busy packaging mushrooms, which will be shipped to major cities in China and even abroad within 48 hours.
To ensure that wild mushrooms stay fresh, it is critical to ship them as quickly as possible. To achieve this, high-speed trains have proven to be the best mode of transport in recent years.
“The mushroom-picking period coincides with the rainy season. At that time of the year, aircraft often cannot take off in time due to storms. On the other hand, the high-speed train is not only a reliable means of transportation, but also offers constant-temperature shipping conditions to guarantee product quality,” Mao Zhiyuan, Deputy Director of the Kunming Branch of China Railway Express (CRE) at Kunming South Station, told Chinafrica. As part of China State Railway Group, this logistics company was established in 1997 and offers high-speed train delivery services nationwide.
A new solution
At the end of 2016, Yunnan entered the era of high-speed railway transportation with the introduction of the Shanghai-kunming high-speed railway, which passes through Qujing City in east Yunnan. Since then, both