From Nov. 6 to 8, the fourth Huangjing (Polygonatum cyrtonema) Industry Development Conference was held in Xinhuang Dong Autonomous County, bringing together more than 400 academicians, experts and business representatives to discuss the industry’s future.
Now in its fourth year since the conference was permanently established in Xinhuang, the event has witnessed the development of the Huangjing industry. The county’s Huangjing planting area has exceeded 58,000 mu (about 3,867 hectares); its annual processing volume accounts for one-third of the national market; the output value of processing Huangjing and other traditional Chinese medicinal herbs has surpassed 3 billion yuan; the industry has generated more than 10,000 jobs; and its products have obtained food import permits in 25 countries.
The conference is held every year. What is in focus this year? Not just how complete the industrial chain has become, but also the answer one mountainous county has found to the question of what can drive rural revitalization: a single herb. In recent days, reporters visited seedling nurseries, processing workshops, industrial parks and shops along local streets, listening to growers, seedling producers, processors and sellers describe how this plant has changed their lives.
Dongpo Village’s Huangjing seedling base covers 2,000 mu (about 133 hectares), making it the largest Huangjing seedling base in China. Across the county, more than 3,000 mu (200 hectares) of large-scale, high-standard seedling bases have been established. They raise more than 450 million high-quality seedlings a year, enough to meet the needs of over 40,000 mu (about 2,667 hectares) of planting.
Behind these figures lie decades of accumulated experience and focused efforts in recent years. Mountains account for 84.22 percent of Xinhuang’s land area, while forest coverage stands at 70.41 percent. Its humid climate and suitable soil give Huangjing ideal growing conditions. As early as the 1950s, local trade in Huangjing and other Chinese medicinal herbs was already quite active, gradually giving the county an edge as a procurement and distribution hub. But for a long time, cultivation relied on experience and farmers raised their own seedlings, resulting in inconsistent quality and holding the industry back. “We used to dig up wild Huangjing to sell. On a good day, we might dig up many; on a bad one, we’d come back empty-handed. When we saved seeds and raised seedlings ourselves, we never knew how many would survive,” recalled an elderly villager.
The turning point came with a painstaking focus on “a single seed.” In recent years, Xinhuang has strengthened cooperation with industry experts and research institutions, tackling technical challenges in seedling propagation, variety selection, and the prevention and control of pests, diseases and weeds. It has also successfully conducted a space-breeding experiment for Huangjing: seeds were carried into space aboard a spacecraft and exposed to the space environment to induce mutations, then brought back to Earth for further selection and breeding. “Space breeding takes a long time, but it may produce desirable traits that conventional breeding cannot,” said a technician involved in the experiment. It is a way to “keep an option in reserve” for the long-term development of Huangjing germplasm.
Rigorous research has earned authoritative recognition. After three rounds of expert appraisal, the source species of Xinhuang Huangjing was confirmed as Polygonatum kingianum, known in Chinese as Dian Huangjing. The county has established three conservation bases for wild huangjing, and nine specimens have been formally collected by the National Plant Specimen Resource Center. At this year’s conference, Wang Qiong, a researcher at the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, presented findings from an evaluation of the quality of Xinhuang’s fine-leaved Huangjing, scientifically confirming the identity of the herb grown there.
A reliable seed supply is essential to expanding cultivation. Companies including China State Farms, the Yuelu Mountain Chinese Medicinal Herb Seed Industry Innovation Center, Yunnan Lishuo and Huairen Boshikang have established large-scale, high-standard seedling bases in the county, creating a coordinated “company + base + farmer” model. Zhang Zhonglin, general manager of the Boshikang Huangjing seedling base project, put it bluntly: “It’s better to focus on managing five or 10 mu well than to grow 100 mu extensively.” The base uses standardized facility-based agriculture, with shade coverings, integrated water-and-fertilizer drip irrigation, and automatic weather and soil monitoring, so the shade-loving plant is no longer left to “depend on the weather.” Each seedling undergoes three years of cultivation and more than 20 procedures.
Guijie Village in Fulou town lies tucked into folds of the mountains. Grower Long Guangquan squatted by his field, looking at freshly dug Huangjing. Its rhizomes were thick, with soil still clinging to them, and the fragrance of medicinal herbs was already in the air. “The crop has grown especially well this year. Yields could reach 4,000 to 6,000 kg per mu,” he said matter-of-factly, as if he had long been sure of it. “Everything we’ve dug up has already been reserved. I’m not worried about finding buyers at all. I’ve been growing Huangjing for four years, and four households in my group have followed suit. I provide the seedlings, teach them the techniques, and arrange sales together when it’s time to harvest. In the countryside, people don’t trust a theory; they trust what they see growing in the next field.” In neighboring Chaping Village, Yao Jianbo sold Huangjing to pay off all his loans in one go last year.
More than 1,300 households in Xinhuang grow Huangjing, like Yao Jianbo and Long Guangquan. But the scale of the industry did not appear overnight. Huangjing takes a long time to grow and requires considerable investment. Farmers worry most about two things: not having enough money to get started, and being unable to sell their harvest at the end. Xinhuang has stepped in to address both concerns. The “Huangjing Loan” provides mortgage-backed credit of 4,000 yuan per mu of forestland, while the “Huangjing Insurance” offers coverage of 10,000 to 15,000 yuan per mu. A 60-million-yuan special bond for the development of understory industries provides further support. On the sales side, the model is “companies manage both ends, farmers take care of the middle”: companies provide seedlings, set uniform technical standards and guarantee a minimum purchase price, while farmers focus on planting. In Dongpo Village, a villager weeding in a greenhouse worked out the figures for the reporter: renting out her land brings in rent, working at the base earns her a wage, and the skills she learns allow her to grow a few mu of Huangjing herself. “One plot of land, three sources of income.” Like her, more than 10,000 people across the county have found work through the Huangjing industry.
From scattered foraging for wild plants in the mountains to China’s largest Huangjing seedling base, Xinhuang has put down the roots of an industry with a single seedling. The confidence that allows growers like Mr. Long to expand cultivation and bring their neighbors along is embedded at the very start of this industrial chain.
Inside Hunan Xiangbaolin Huangjing Health Industry Co, Ltd, the air carries the distinctive fragrance of medicinal herbs. On the production line, Huangjing is washed, steamed, sliced and dried before being made into products such as Huangjing tea, Huangjing pills and ready-to-eat Huangjing, then packaged for shipment. “In the past, we mainly sold fresh produce and roughly processed medicinal herbs. Their added value was low, and we had little bargaining power,” the company’s head admitted. A short industrial chain had long been the biggest weakness: Huangjing was dug from the fields, dried in the sun and sold to traders from elsewhere, who took the lion’s share of the profits. No matter how good the crop, selling it only as a raw commodity limits its added value. People in Xinhuang began thinking about how to address this issue.
To fill the gaps in the chain, Xinhuang has chosen to develop industrial parks, standardize production and go digital. It has established specialized platforms, including the China Xinhuang Huangjing Cultural Industry Park, the China Xinhuang Digital and Smart Huangjing Industrial Park and the Dashuwan Huangjing Primary Processing Industrial Park. More than 40 Huangjing companies have been cultivated, developing over 40 products, including Huangjing tea, Huangjing pills, ready-to-eat Huangjing and Huangjing honey drinks. At the primary-processing stage, standards are the key. At the conference, Fan Bei, deputy director of the Institute of Food Science and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, released standards for the primary processing of Xinhuang fine-leaved Huangjing. “From the timing of harvesting and washing procedures to steaming temperatures and drying methods, there are clear rules to follow,” Fan said. Standardization helps ensure consistent processing quality among thousands of households and lays the groundwork for large-scale sales.
Digitalization provides the foundation; processing is the cutting edge. The Xinhuang Digital Huangjing Industrial Park is located in Dadongping Village, Huangzhou Town. The park is developing a “Huangjing Industry Smart System” and a smart exhibition hall at the “Huangjing Research Institute,” with the aim of bringing digital management to the entire chain, from cultivation and processing to distribution. The system is designed to solve two longstanding problems: in the past, decisions about how much to plant, how long to grow it and when to harvest were based largely on experience; meanwhile, producers did not know what specifications end-users wanted, and end-users did not know how much stock was available at the source. In 2025, Xinhuang’s Huangjing production-and-sales data product was listed in Shenzhen, allowing data to begin adding value to Huangjing grown in the mountains. The fact that an agricultural product from a mountainous county has put “data” on the trading floor speaks for itself.
On the production line at the Hunan Dongxiang Huangjing Industrial Park, the traditional “nine steaming and nine sun-drying” process has been upgraded to the “9×5 Juyuan steaming method.” Guided by data analysis from the testing center, it converts Huangjing polysaccharides more thoroughly while retaining more active ingredients. From three rounds of cleaning and processing while fresh to cold-chain transportation, each of the eight stages and 24 procedures is governed by clear standards. Dadongping Village is also planning a research and development center and production center for Huangjing concentrate, with products including Huangjing concentrate oral liquid, Huangjing mooncakes, Huangjing noodles and Huangjing pastries. Huangjing is now available in more than 40 products, including ready-to-eat Huangjing, Huangjing tea drinks, Huangjing liquor and Huangjing paste. Thirty leading companies, including Boshikang and Zhongken Daodi, have clustered in the processing sector. With each step up the value chain, more added value stays in Xinhuang and more jobs remain in its workshops.
As the industrial chain extends, Huangjing is becoming part of a wider range of consumer experiences. The Huangjing Cultural Industry Park has been recognized as a provincial-level industrial tourism demonstration base, and visitors can take part in medicinal cuisine and health and wellness activities. “We are moving from ‘growing huangjing’ and ‘selling medicinal herbs’ toward ‘building an industry’ and ‘selling products.’ We are committed to developing industrial parks, standardizing production and going digital. Through policy support, financial assistance, industrial park development and business cultivation, we are promoting coordinated growth in planting, processing, research and development, and sales,” a county official said.
Trade and exports are also gathering momentum. Xinhuang has traditionally been a distribution center for Huangjing serving six provincial-level regions—Hunan, Chongqing, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. In September 2024, a food order from Vietnam worth 30 million yuan was signed. At a trade and investment promotion event in Bangkok, Thailand, in July 2025, sales orders worth 92 million yuan were secured, and the products received recognition from Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration. With the Huaihua International Land Port offering a route that reaches ASEAN in three days, Huangjing grown deep in the mountains is closer than ever to store shelves in Southeast Asia. At a thematic discussion during the conference, a representative of an e-commerce company said Huangjing products had a good repeat-purchase rate online. “The key is consistent quality and clearly defined selling points, which depends on standards and processing capacity.”
Huangjing has long been regarded as a choice ingredient that can serve as both food and medicine. The Compendium of Materia Medica records that it “supplements the qi, nourishes the heart and lungs, and strengthens the sinews and bones.” How to connect this traditional understanding with modern consumer demand is a challenge Xinhuang is working to solve.
In the conference’s keynote session, Jin Zhengyu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at the School of Food Science and Technology at Jiangnan University, delivered a report titled “Upgrading and Developing the ‘Food-Medicine Homology’ Health Industry Driven by the Wisdom of Food-based Wellness.” He said that the food-medicine homology industry was entering a period of opportunity amid rising consumer demand, and that the key was to turn “good ingredients” into “good products” that consumers can understand, enjoy and want to buy. Experts including Su Fengju, president of the Food-Medicine Homology Research Branch of the China Information Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Yang Kexin, vice-president of Wangjing Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, shared their perspectives on digital service systems and clinical applications in orthopedics. Representatives from Liaoning, Anhui, Yunnan, Jiangxi and Hunan exchanged experiences from their respective regions. Among the four outcomes released at the conference, Duan Zhouwei presented an ecological evaluation plan for high-quality Huangjing products, while Wang Fengzhong released a report on the development of the Huangjing industry. Their work provides a basis for quality grading and assessments of industry trends. Endorsement from researchers and clinicians is helping to open up the market for Huangjing.
But making “food-medicine homology” a reality takes more than a slogan. It means offering products that ordinary people want to eat, can afford and enjoy eating regularly. People in Xinhuang have put more thought into this than many might imagine.
Ready-to-eat Huangjing can be eaten straight from the package, making it convenient. A spoonful of Huangjing paste stirred into water makes it easier to use regularly. Huangjing concentrate, noodles and pastries bring the herb to breakfast tables and into snack bags. At the “Xinhuang Three Treasures” Supply and Marketing Cooperative Select store in Longxi Ancient Town, Huangjing lattes and milk teas are freshly prepared cup by cup, blending herbal sweetness with the fragrance of milk. The shop owner said there were plenty of returning customers, with repeat purchases reaching 70 to 80 percent. A visitor who came with her child put it simply: “It’s healthy and delicious, and it also helps children learn about Chinese medicinal herbs. It’s a win-win.” That is the deeper meaning of food-medicine homology: it turns Huangjing from “medicine for the sick” into “food for ordinary people.” As demand for these products grows, companies can take on overseas orders with greater confidence; when young people are willing to buy a cup of Huangjing milk tea, there is a market for the crop that growers expand production to cultivate; and when processed products sell, guaranteed purchases can support the tens of thousands of mu of plantations at the start of the chain.
Good news continues to come from the market. Xinhuang Huangjing has been designated for use by the Embassy of Madagascar in China. It secured a procurement order worth US$1 million at the Hunan (Huaihua) RCEP Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference. According to relevant county departments, food products made from Huangjing have been exported for the first time, marking a first for Hunan province. At present, Huangjing products have obtained food import permits in 25 countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Egypt, completing a full loop from seedlings and cultivation to processing, warehousing and trade. “Obtaining an import permit is only the first step. The key is to make products that suit the market,” said a company head engaged in Huangjing trade. “Different countries have different tastes and regulatory standards, so products need to be developed accordingly. But once you find the right path, the market opens up.” The head of Hunan Xiangbaolin Huangjing Health Industry Co, Ltd. once put the outlook of Xinhuang’s people in a nutshell: “As long as you find the right path for products from a distinctive local industry, even ordinary local specialties can truly be built into a regional public brand.”
Integrating medicinal healthcare, food and tourism is another way Xinhuang is broadening the industry’s benefits. “I used to know Huangjing only as a Chinese medicinal herb. I didn’t realize it could also be made into tea, dishes and snacks. It’s a great experience,” said a visitor to the Huangjing Cultural Industry Park. During the conference, after visiting the Xinhuang Digital Huangjing Industrial Park and the Dongpo Huangjing seedling and cultivation base, a business representative from outside the county remarked: “From seedlings to processing and exports, the chain is complete and the standards are clear. This is an industry we can work with.”
The longer-term strategy focuses on people. Xinhuang has jointly established a Huangjing industry research institute with universities including Minzu University of China and Hunan Agricultural University. Xinhuang Vocational Secondary School was among the first secondary vocational schools in the province to offer a major in Chinese medicinal herb cultivation. Together with Huaihua Vocational and Technical College and the county’s Huangjing industry association, it has also established a Huangjing industry college. The Dongpo seedling base provides more than 10,000 person-times of work for local residents each year. There, villagers earn wages while learning the “know-how” of standardized cultivation. Those who grow Huangjing, raise its seedlings, process it and sell it are turning from laborers into a new generation of farmers and workers with technical skills and an understanding of standards. A mountainous county has brought a single herb into the framework of a modern industry and planned its development accordingly. That vision alone is worth reflecting on.
From a hillside in Guijie Village, looking into the distance, a new crop of seedlings has begun to emerge in Long Guangquan’s fields. He is in no hurry. There are people to teach him the techniques, buyers for the harvest and a guaranteed minimum price. “We’ll take it step by step. There’s plenty of time,” he said. The words sound ordinary, but they capture the most solid foundation of Xinhuang’s Huangjing industry: allowing people who want to farm to make a living from their land without having to gamble on luck; allowing those who want to raise seedlings to tend each one for three years, building the confidence to produce hundreds of millions; giving those who want to process the herb clear standards to follow, data to rely on and markets to reach; and letting ordinary people taste the “sweetness” of a humble herb at the breakfast table or in a drink from a street-side shop.
From the mountains of the Dong region to dinner tables in 25 countries, Xinhuang Huangjing’s story of going global has only just begun. A plant from the mountains has become “gold.” The people of Xinhuang have brought it out from beneath the forest canopy, planted it in fields, raised it in greenhouses, sent it into a digital industrial park, turned it into milk tea and sold it to ASEAN countries.
(Translated by Yang Hong)