Basic Introduction to Dunhuang Grapes
The grape base in Yangguan Town, Dunhuang City, Gansu Province, is the largest fresh-eating grape production base in Gansu Province, located near the ancient site of Yangguan in western Gansu, mentioned in a famous Tang Dynasty poem: “Drink another cup of wine, for there are no old friends west of Yangguan.” Yangguan Town has 933.33 hectares of cultivated land and a population of about 4,500 people. Currently, all the farmland in this town is planted with grapes, making it one of the few grape production specialist towns in the country.
The annual average temperature in the base is around 9-3°C, with an accumulated temperature above 10°C reaching over 3,600°C, annual precipitation of only about 40mm, and approximately 3,260 hours of annual sunshine. With abundant sunlight and low air humidity, irrigation mainly relies on natural spring water. The farmland is sandy soil, with very few pests and diseases. The accumulation of dry matter in the grapes is high, making the ecological conditions very suitable for producing high-quality, pollution-free fresh-eating grapes.
The grape production at the base developed along with agricultural economic reforms in the 1980s, with the main variety being seedless white, accounting for over 95%. In normal years, the total output of grapes is around 36 million kg, with annual grape income exceeding 70 million yuan. It is a horticultural industry that relies on large-scale commercial fruit production as its pillar industry.
Geographical Scope
Dunhuang City is located at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor, at the intersection of Gansu, Qinghai, and Xinjiang provinces (regions), between 92°13′ and 95°30′ east longitude and 39°53′ and 41°35′ north latitude. The city covers a total area of 31,200 square kilometers, with 1,400 square kilometers of oasis, which accounts for only 4.5% of the total area, surrounded by deserts and gravel plains, hence the name “Oasis in the Gobi Desert.” Dunhuang City administers six towns and three townships, with 56 village committees. The planting area of grapes such as Red Globe and Seedless White in Dunhuang City is 7,000 hectares, accounting for 60% of the total arable land area, with an annual production of 150,000 tons of grapes and an annual output value of 150 million yuan.
Product Characteristics
1. Sensory Features: Seedless White grapes: oval-shaped berries, thin skin, greenish-yellow in color, less juice, seedless, sweet and sour; Red Globe grapes: nearly round berries, large size, sweet taste, crisp flesh, medium-thick skin, bright red, not easily detached from the stalk, suitable for fresh consumption and storage.
2. Unique Internal Composition: sugar content of 18-24%, acid content of around 0.4%, suitable for both fresh consumption and drying, with a drying rate of 20-30%.
Historical and Folk Customs
The cultivation of grapes in Dunhuang can be traced back to the Han and Wei dynasties. The pharmacopeia of that time, “Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica,” recorded: “Grapes grow in Wuyuan, Longxi, and Dunhuang.”
Dunhuang was traditionally a grain and cotton farming base. At the end of the last century, Dunhuang began to adjust its agricultural industrial structure, guiding farmers to develop fresh-eating grapes. However, influenced by traditional planting concepts and outdated planting techniques, the total production of grapes was small, leading to sales difficulties, including the painful experience of “planting grapes in the spring and uprooting them in the fall.”
In 1949, the cultivation of grapes in Dunhuang remained in a depressed state within the courtyard economy phase. From 1960 to 1969, state-owned Yangguan Forest Farm and Nanhu Township (now Yangguan Town) introduced varieties such as Seedless White and Ma'nai (Milk of Horse) from Xinjiang, leading to gradual improvement. However, in the early 1990s, the production of Dunhuang grapes was generally low, and products were unsold, resulting in cases of vineyards being destroyed and converted back to farmland.
After 2000, Dunhuang City guided farmers to change their thinking and adopt new ideas, integrating water conservation, desert control, reforestation, ecological restoration, and the development of fruit economies into comprehensive planning. Various towns actively explored the establishment of farmer technical service teams, fully implementing standardized planting, and helping farmers grow grapes through a socialized grape production service system.
Awards and Honors
In 2012, the original General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine approved the implementation of geographical indication product protection for “Dunhuang Grapes.”
In 2014, Dunhuang was named “China's Grape Famous City” by the Chinese Society of Agricultural Sciences Grape Branch. The Seedless White and Red Globe grapes were awarded the title of “Chinese Famous Fruits.”