China Scene: East

Whopping organic water melons raising eyebrows

Visitors to Yuntai village in Jiangning county, Jiangsu province, are being left gobsmacked by Herculean watermelons weighing 75 kg.

The organic fruit whose seed is from Israel can grow at a speed of 2.5 kg a day.

As the watermelon stops growing in temperatures below 15 degrees centigrade, melon farmers are required to use electric blankets to keep them warm on cold days, according to Wang Hongshan, chief of the Nanjing Sweet Melon Association.

Prices for the special melon can be as high as 10,000 yuan ($1,429) because they will only grow in certain fertile soils.

(Modern Express)

Soldier's voice comes back to defend mate's honor

An old Jiangsu province man who was made deaf and dumb while fighting against the Kuomintang army in the 1940s has got his voice back. Binhai county man Chou Fuping, 85, never muttered a single word after eating sugar cane poisoned by the enemy in 1949.

That was until a tomb honoring his fallen comrade-in-arms, Chou Yisan, a young man from Chou's village, fell into a state of disrepair. Chou Fuping was so upset he urged his younger brother, who used to be a village official, to repair the crumbling monument in late April. When his younger brother prevaricated, Chou Fuping, a hot-tempered person, started shouting at him, much to the amazement of everyone who had not heard him speak for 59 years.

He has spoken normally ever since.

(Yangtze Evening News)

(China Daily 05/13/2008 page6)