Students compete for persimmon power

Harvest season in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, brought college students to a special competition for collecting persimmons with innovative tools.

At Northwestern Polytechnical University on the southeast side of Xi'an, nearly 100 students and teachers in 20 teams participated in a creative competition on Friday. The tools for collecting persimmons were designed by the students.

Liu Ping, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the university's School of Mechanical Engineering, said this year is the second year of the picking competition, and some past tools have been expanded and improved.

"This year's champion team gathered 53 kilograms of persimmons in 40 minutes," she said, adding that the planting of persimmon trees on the university's downtown campus likely dates to the late 1950s.

"Persimmon trees are a special locally grown species and widely planted at the foothills of the Qinling Mountains. We have 43 persimmon trees on campus, which arouses students' interest," Liu said.