Eva Wu, G9 吴佳瑞

My beloved hometown lies in Guangdong’s Chaoshan region, a place where every landscape feels familiar and where I have quietly witnessed the gentle changing of seasons. This year, as always, I returned home to spend a warm Spring Festival with my grandparents — reuniting with relatives, sharing meals, and soaking in the joyful, peaceful holiday atmosphere.

Chaoshan is a bountiful land blessed with an abundance of fruit. More than 20 varieties of high-quality fruits are cultivated here, including the prized black gold wax apples — imported from Malaysia and Thailand — whose crisp texture and delicate flavor have won the hearts of many. Across the region, over 60 well-managed, eco-friendly orchards stretch across vast areas. Visitors can wander through these orchards, pick fruit straight from the trees, and taste the fresh, juicy harvest while experiencing the simple joy of pastoral life. Local people are also skilled at transforming seasonal fruits into delightful refreshments, such as cooling fruit shaved ice — a treat beloved by locals and tourists alike throughout the year.

Beyond its fruits, Chaoshan is renowned for its rich and diverse food culture. Thanks to the Overseas Chinese community in my hometown city, which brought unique culinary traditions and cooking techniques from 13 Southeast Asian countries, we can savor authentic Southeast Asian cuisine right here at home. Highlights include the soft and layered Melaleuca Cake, the colorful Rainbow Cake, sweet traditional rice cakes, fragrant Indonesian rice dumplings, and smooth Vietnamese rice rolls. Chaoshan’s signature raw pickles, with their distinctive fresh and savory taste, are also a local classic not to be missed.

Chaoshan is also home to unique and historic architecture. You can still find distinctive arch houses built by Indonesian overseas Chinese in the 1960s, preserving the style and spirit of that era. There are also beautifully designed spaces like the Overseas Chinese Hometown Park and Qiaohui Park, which seamlessly integrate Eastern and Western Asian architectural styles and cultural influences.