Beginning of winter

Beginning of winter, is one of China's solar terms, it represents the end of the fall, the beginning of winter. On this day, northerners accustomed to eating dumplings, and on this habit, there is a legend.

  A legend has it that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD25-220), "Medical Saint" Zhang Zhongjing saved many people in Henan province from a typhoid epidemic and their ears' from being frostbitten around Start of Winter.

  He cooked mutton, hot peppers and herbs to dispel the cold and increase body heat. He wrapped these ingredients into a dough skin and made them into an ear shape. Since then, people have learned to make the food which became known as "dumpling". Today there is still a saying that goes "Eat dumplings on Start of Winter Day, or your ears will be frostbitten”. Thus, the beginning of winter to eat dumplings is also to commemorate Zhang Zhongjing.

  Winter is actually a season for storing food. In the north of China, most of the people store the vegetables harvested in the autumn until winter. Like our factory, at the end of this autumn, our factory also harvested a lot of mature fruits and vegetables. It is worth mentioning that we harvest the sweet potato, which is our factory workers in their spare time out. Now the winter, the sweet potatoes are mature, and its taste good.