WU JINGHUA, a farmer from Dahuangbu Village in Pingdu, has been awarded the “watermelon king” title at a national watermelon festival in Beijing recently.

    With his watermelon weighing 36 kilograms, the biggest at the festival, Wu also won a 10,000 yuan (US$1,544) cash award.

    Wu said he had never used any chemicals to grow his watermelons. “All the watermelons in our village are green, organic and healthy. This is not my biggest one. I had one weighing about 40 kilograms last year,” he said.

    Mingcun Township in Pingdu is well-known for growing watermelons and had introduced advanced technology to help the fruit grow better in recent years, said Fan Zaisen, chief of Dahuangbu Village.

    “Wu’s watermelons are the biggest in the village every year but we did not expect him to win the award in Beijing, too,” Fan said.

    “Using technology to boost production is more useful than using any of the illegal ways,” Wu said. (Wang Yuanyuan, Qian Zhuo)