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As the winter begins, residents in Northern China have started an annual ritual — cabbage-storing.
On November 10, the roadside in front of a popular grain store under name of Tongrisheng at Beixinqiao, Dongcheng District, Beijing, is particularly busy.
The store starts to sell cabbages, attracting many customers who take home the cabbages not in small plastic bags or baskets, but in trucks or three-wheeled hauling carts.
In one purchase, they bring home 250, 300 or even 500 jin (250 kilograms or 551 pounds) of cabbages. The price is 0.4 yuan (5.7 cents) per jin.
One of the store clerks said the store could sell nearly 300,000 jin (150,000 kilograms) of cabbages within 11 days in this period of time each year.
Hoarding cabbages at the beginning of winter is a tradition for many Chinese people in northern China, dating back to the old days. Cabbage is cheap and easy to store, and a perfect choice for financially stressed families.
But now as livelihoods improve, and with the development of greenhouses and transportation, fresh vegetables are available in markets all year round, and many people no longer hoard cabbages.
But many senior citizens still keep stockpiling cabbage. “It has nothing to do with food and starvation, but nostalgia for simpler bygone days,” noted an article by chinaminutes.com.
Video source: Pear Video
