Yulin Ancient Mulberry Garden (御林古桑园)

Located to the east of Anding Town of Daxing District, Yulin Ancient Mulberry Garden is 45 kilometers from downtown Beijing and 20 kilometers from Langfang in Hebei. It is a comprehensive garden for agricultural sightseeing and popular science.

It was said that mulberry trees were grown in Anding Town during the period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and this kind of cultivation has almost 2,000 years of history. It owns the largest and unique ancient mulberry garden in North China. “An Outline Treatise of Medical Herbs” records that mulberry invigorates the liver and the kidney, enriches the blood and improves eyesight. Traditional Chinese medicine deems that the mulberry is sweet in taste but cold in nature, so it has the effects of quenching thirst and invigorating the liver and kidney. Mulberries are reputed as the “magical tree in the east” and the mulberry enjoys the fame of “king of fruits”. The ancient mulberry garden is located in the ancient Wuding River (now Yongding River) sand plain, where sand is clean with good ventilation properties, suitable for the growth of mulberry trees.

Features: The garden covers an area of 23,333 square meters. There are 446 old trees in the garden, and more than 35,000 newly-planted mulberry trees. The “mulberry tree king”, almost one meter in diameter of breast height and about 25 meters in the diameter of the crown, produces 400 to 500 kilograms of mulberries each year. At present, the old tree is listed by the Beijing Forestry Bureau as a Grade 2 protected ancient tree. In 2004, the mulberries here passed authentication and became classified as an organic food in Beijing. In 2006, large-scale outdoor activities for youngsters were introduced, forming the landscapes such as the mulberry cultural corridor, appreciating the moon on the mulberry stage, mulberry sea, paths in mulberry forests, fish jumping over the gully, the flower garden, and etc. In the middle of each May when the mulberry picking festival is held, it becomes a good place for citizens to pick mulberries, spend vacations and to experience folk customs.