Daylilies link farming, new products and tourism in Datong

Moroccan video content creator Fatima Zahra walks through a daylily field at the Tangjiabao Daylily Industrial Base in Yunzhou district, Datong, Shanxi province, on July 19. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Foreign content creators sampled daylily beer and explored products ranging from dried buds to ice cream during a visit to Datong, Shanxi province, gaining a closer look at how the city is building a broader industry around the traditional crop.

The participants also attended the opening ceremony of the Datong Daylily Harvest Month following a tour of the Tangjiabao Daylily Industrial Base in Datong's Yunzhou district.

Tangjiabao has about 230 hectares of daylily fields, with a flowering period of nearly two months beginning in late June.

The edible flower buds are widely used in Chinese cuisine. At Tangjiabao, the industry has expanded from cultivation into processing and sales, producing dried daylilies and other products while linking companies, cooperatives and local farming households.

For Moroccan video content creator Fatima Zahra, the visit showed how closely the crop is connected with rural livelihoods.

"Daylilies are not just pretty flowers. They help local farmers make a living," she said.

Zahra said visiting both a working agricultural base and a public festival allowed the group to see the labor behind the crop and its role in local life.

At the opening ceremony, traditional products appeared alongside newer offerings. British photographer and content creator Joe Burns and Italian photographer Fabio Nodari sampled daylily beer, which they said they enjoyed it, and posed for photographs with local vendors. Displays also featured daylily ice cream and other products incorporating the local crop.

The annual harvest month includes product exhibitions, trade matchmaking, field visits and activities combining agriculture, culture and tourism. It brings together growers, researchers, processors and distributors while introducing visitors to Datong’s daylily industry.

For the international participants, the journey from fields of yellow blossoms to processed foods and drinks showed how a local crop can support farmers' incomes, encourage product development and contribute to local tourism.