Great green mountain
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Xiaojinggou is the perfect location for producing organic lamb.
Our guides were Li Xiaoping, 63, and his wife Wei Cong, owners of the organic lamb farm we were visiting. They have lived on the Daqing Mountain range almost all their lives, and know the hills like the backs of their hands.
Half way up the mountain, Li suddenly stopped our convoy of cars. Getting out, he declared, "Let's go treasure hunting."
We had stopped on a ridge, and in the valley just below us was a strip of pine trees. Wei fearlessly plunged down the slope, followed by one member of our group.
"She's going to look for mushrooms. We can find pine mushrooms and chanterelles here," Li said.
We craned our necks expectantly but Wei and company had disappeared into the woods.
As we waited, we become aware of the flowers blooming profusely at our feet. The ladies in the group automatically spread out and started picking bouquets of every color. In a few minutes, several colorful bunches had been gathered.
Li named the flowers one by one, and I realized that I had been trapped in city life so long that I no longer recognized these natural wonders.
Half an hour later, Wei reappeared with a big bag filled with mushrooms, among which were several large matsutake, those precious pine mushrooms that fetch a lofty price at any city restaurant.
For this couple living deep in the mountains, these gifts from nature are a part of their lives, and they smiled at our loud exclamations of delight.
Eventually, we arrived at a valley called Xiaojinggou - meaning "valley with the little well" - where the paths were so rugged that we had to abandon our sedan cars and transfer to the farm's huge off-road vehicles.
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