Goji festival in Ningxia

Beer festivals are nothing out of the ordinary in Germany, and Japan has quite a few odds-and-ends fairs. Wine tastings are popular in America, but what other social gatherings are popular elsewhere to celebrate popular foods? In other portions of the world, they celebrate one of the top superfoods. A quiet place in upper China has a two week long party for goji berries every year.

Every year in Ningxia, which holds the title of the goji capital of the world, they have a two week long festival to celebrate their culture and people’s dependance on the berry. This festival attracts many students and businessmen and becomes a great cultural and fiscal attraction for the region.

The Ningxia region geologically rests next to the Yellow River and Inner Mongolia, which lets them get the melted snow from the Himalayas to water their land. Climate, soil, and clean location makes this the perfect place for the perfect goji berry, and thus bears people who live past 100 years old. The people of the Ningxia region have been relying on ginseng, ling tzi, and goji for over 5000 years, per ancient medical records.

Some confusion comes from the origins of the festival and the goji berries themselves, mainly based on the relative locations of the different geological features. Ningxia is the home of the berries, and the main place they are grown. Ningxia is in the piece of China, which borders Inner Mongolia directly to the north. When websites claim to sell berries from the Himalayan Mountains, they are refering to the Yellow River Valley, which is in this Ningxia-Mongolia area. Snow on the Himalayas and He Lan Mountains melt and flow into the Yellow River, which creates clean, clear conditions for nutritious berries.

Goji berries are a life saving berry for those of the Ningxia region, and for that, they deserve the two week long celebration they earn every year. Since ancient times they have been recorded to strengthen organs such as the liver and kidneys, as well as protect the eyes and reinforce one’s “life force”. For thousands of years these berries have worked for the Chinese, and only recently it has gone out to other countries. What benefits may it hold in America?