Changbai Mountain's 3 new treasures

Among the dense forests rich in natural resources in the Changbai Mountain of Jilin province, ginseng, mineral water and Songhua inkstone have attracted people's attention with their unique value in recent years, earning them the name of "three new treasures" that are iconic to the region.

"They are gifts from Changbai Mountain to the world. Located in the core hinterland of Changbai Mountain, Baishan has Fusong county which is famous for Chinese ginseng, while Jingyu county is known as China's top mineral water production base, and Jiangyuan district is the hometown of Songhua stone," said Xiang Hui, Party secretary of Baishan city and a Jilin provincial deputy to the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature.

"China's best ginseng is from Fusong. We have a history of over 1,500 years of ginseng excavation and have established the largest ginseng distribution center in Asia," he said.

"We have always regarded promoting the high-quality development of the ginseng industry as a top priority," Xiang added. "With efforts mainly from enterprises and social organizations such as the Baishan City Ginseng Industry Development Association and the Fusong County Ginseng Association, we have cultivated 21 high-quality varieties of Changbai Mountain ginseng and two varieties of American ginseng, with a collection of over 2,100 samples of various ginseng varieties."

Currently, the retention area of garden ginseng in Baishan is approximately 2,333 hectares and the forest ginseng area is stable at over 26,667 hectares.

The brand value of "Fusong Ginseng" has been assessed at 20.63 billion yuan ($2.85 billion).

"It is important to fully process ginseng and explore the industrial value along the entire chain. For the next step, we will fully leverage the strength of leading enterprises in accelerating the ginseng industrialization, deepen our cooperation with universities and research institutes, as well as explore more ginseng application scenarios and related products," Xiang said.

"Baishan is striving to strengthen the green product industry represented by mineral water, fully unleashing the production capacity of mineral water and further demonstrating the brand value of Changbai Mountain mineral water," said Xiang.

With the completion of a series of projects, including the 200,000-metric-ton sparkling Changbai Mountain Tianquan mineral water project, the city's mineral water production reached 4.3 million tons in 2024, according to Xiang.

"Next, we will encourage enterprises to focus on market demand and strengthen product research and development. And we will strongly support those industry leaders such as Nongfu Spring, Wahaha and Quanyangquan to expand investment," he said. "With a focus on high quality, diversification and functionality, we will continue to develop high-end mineral water products including small molecule water, sparkling water and strontium-rich water. We will also promote characteristic and healthy functional mineral water beverages such as wild blueberry juice, birch juice, and ginseng essence."

The third of the "three new treasures" is Songhua inkstone.

The Jiangyuan district of Baishan, as the main production area of Songhua stone, boasts extremely rich mineral resources. Three Songhua stone veins and seven mine groups have been discovered in the district, with estimated reserves exceeding 50 million cubic meters, Xiang said.

Jiangyuan has now nearly 200 enterprises engaged in the production and sales of Songhua stone.

"The district is integrating resources to construct a Songhua stone industrial park, aiming to reach a considerable industrial scale from various aspects including design, production processing, sales and market operation," Xiang said.

To explore a path of combining cultural creative products with Songhua stone, Baishan city has cultivated a large number of specialized talent, including one national-level arts and crafts designer, 39 provincial-level arts and crafts masters, three intangible cultural inheritors, as well as more than 1,000 carving technicians in total.

Eight categories and over 300 series of Songhua stone cultural creative products have been developed, gaining a large number of followers worldwide, according to Xiang.

"With the help of the three new treasures of Changbai Mountain, we will coordinate ecological environmental protection and green low-carbon development, while striving to accelerate green transformation," he said.

"We also hope to integrate characteristic local resources such as ice and snow, natural scenery, and ethnic customs to develop the tourism industry," Xiang added.

Contact the writers at zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn