Lake works its lotus magic

of Hangzhou every year.

In summer, their job is to sail into the forest of lotuses, which grow to a height of about 1 meter above the water, on a hand-paddled boat with just a single seat to remove excess leaves to provide more room for the plants to grow.

As temperatures in this “lotus forest” can soar to as high as 50 C in the hottest part of the day, the team has to finish its work before 8 am. The work cannot be done by modern equipment, as the lotuses are highly delicate and it takes decades of experience to tell just how many leaves should be removed.

“The trick is to provide enough air for the plant, but at the same time create the scene of a carpet of lotus leaves dotted with pink flowers,” Chen Laidi said. “The lotuses are like my kids,” he added.

The youngest son of a former West Lake maintenance team worker, he took over his father’s job in 1979.

As the lotuses at the West Lake — one of the country’s best-known freshwater lakes — became increasingly popular over the years, a special team was formed in the early 1990s dedicated to preserving the plants. Now, 23 lotus zones are scattered around the lake.

Chen Laidi said that trade in the lotus leaves and heads started in the late 1990s, when elderly people doing their morning exercises by the lake found workers’ boats were full of them, and offered payment.

“For a year or two, they followed wherever our boats went, so we decided to settle on one place and gather all the harvest of the day for sale. The only problem is that demand always exceeds supply, which we can never change,” he said.

Ni Bing, a 26-year-old administrative worker and the only young person among the 30 standing in line that day, said the West Lake’s unique appeal motivates him to get up early and join those who are waiting.

“It’s cool to say that my leaves and seeds come fresh from the lake and cannot be found online,” said Ni, a native of neighboring Jiangsu province. He moved to Hangzhou one year ago for work and learned about the market from a local colleague.

He will use the lotus leaves either for tea or as a wrap for beggar’s chicken, one of the best-known local dishes, in which spring chicken and sticky rice are wrapped into a lotus leaf. At the market, Ni learned how to cook the dish from local seniors.

Legend has it that it was invented by a beggar who accidentally obtained a chicken from a benefactor.

Too poor to own a pot to cook it in properly, he used lotus leaves from the lake and roasted the chicken with leftovers, including rice, on an open fire. The distinctive aroma from the leaves gives the chicken an unexpectedly fresh flavor, which has placed it at the top of Hangzhou’s cuisine for centuries.

Wang Yong, head chef at the Jinsha restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel in Hangzhou, said, “It’s not only about the aroma from the leaves, but more the idea of eating seasonal and local fare.”

Wang, a native of Shanghai, has run the kitchen at the most popular fine-dining restaurant in Hangzhou for eight years. He argues that while the city has been growing almost as fast as first-tier ones economically, if not faster, there is a more deeply rooted emotional attachment to traditions and local elements even among some of his wealthiest patrons. This has seen his beggar’s chicken ordered as frequently as other pricey dishes.

“At a time when everything is becoming more accessible and journey times between cities and towns are getting shorter with high-speed trains, the more local and seasonal it is, the more precious the food is,” Wang said.