The Xishan Island Loquat Flower Festival kicks off. [Photo/ Suzhou Daily]

The Xishan Island Loquat Flower Festival kicked off this week on Xishan Island, Suzhou, Jiangsu province, attracting crowds to the island's Bingchang Village to enjoy the sights and to taste flower tea, honey and fruit wine made by loquat growers. The festival will continue through to December 10.

There are 1,130 hectares of loquat farms in Wuzhong District, most of them on Xishan Island. Loquat trees usually blossom in late autumn and early winter. Business-savvy loquat growers are using this period to promote their products.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, loquat flower has medicinal properties to treat headache and cold. Besides flower tea, honey bees are brought to loquat farms to produce honey.

According to the officials of Xiashan Island, their loquat farms can yield about 400 tons of loquat honey each year.

The loquat, originally from southeastern China, blossoms in the autumn or early winter, and they ripen in late winter or early spring. The flowers are 2 cm (1 in) in diameter, white, with five petals, and produced in stiff panicles of three to ten flowers. The loquat flowers have a sweet, heady aroma that can be smelled from a distance. It also can be used to make jam, jelly, tea, and honey, which are quite popular among the local people.