China includes ginseng cultivation system on important agricultural heritage list

CHANGCHUN -- The ginseng cultivation system in Changbai Mountain has been added to the important Chinese agricultural cultural heritage list by the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs.

Dubbed the "king of herbs," ginseng is considered to be nutritious and to have medicinal value in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Ginseng has been used in China for more than 4,000 years.

Changbai Mountain is recognized as one of the world's origins of ginseng, and has remained a major global ginseng production base.

In terms of heritage protection, the ginseng cultivation system in the mountain area in Tonghua and Baishan cities and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, northeast China's Jilin Province, is composed of seven cultural contents covering wild ginseng germplasm resources and growth environment, various ginseng cultivation modes and processing technology, and the official ginseng trade during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Ginseng production in Jilin accounts for 60 percent of China's total. In 2022, the output value of the ginseng industry in Jilin had exceeded 64 billion yuan (8.77 billion U.S. dollars).

Sun Zhentian, secretary-general of the Jilin Ginseng Industry Association, said that the identification of the ginseng cultivation system as a national-level important agricultural cultural heritage is of great significance for consolidating China's status as a country of ginseng origin, and promoting scientific utilization of ginseng resources and the quality development of the ginseng industry.