Fruits and Nuts · FFET10446
Hawthorn fruit
A tart red autumn fruit, eaten fresh or dried and made into sugar-coated skewers and hawthorn cakes.
Melons and other fruits eaten fresh, cooked into dishes or dried.
Hawthorn is the edible fruit of Crataegus pinnatifida, also known as shanlihong or hongguo; it ripens in autumn and tastes tart. It is eaten fresh or made into dried slices, sugar-coated skewers, hawthorn cakes and fruit leather, and is grown in Jinzhou, Hebei, and Xintai, Shandong.
What
Hawthorn is a tart edible fruit, commonly red, though yellow forms are also recorded. It is eaten fresh and used to make sugar-coated skewers, hawthorn cakes and fruit leather.1,2
When
Hawthorn ripens in autumn. Historical writing places ripening in the ninth month and describes large, sour fruit being eaten after frost. A report dated September 25, 2025 shows that harvesting was already under way in Xintai, Shandong.2,3,5
Where
Hawthorn is grown in many parts of China; reports from 2025 describe cultivation and harvesting in Jinzhou, Hebei, and Xintai, Shandong, and another account lists large-scale growing in Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guizhou and Guangdong. Historical writing also records hawthorn cake making in Fujian and sugar-coated hawthorn skewers as a winter food in Beijing.1,3,4,5
How
Hawthorn can be eaten fresh, sliced and dried, cooked as chao hongguo, or made into cakes, fruit leather and drinks. One historical Fujian method removes the skin and seeds, then mashes the fruit with sugar and honey into zhagao. A historical Beijing account describes sugar-coated fruit skewers called bingtang hulu, and includes hawthorn among the fruits threaded onto bamboo sticks.1,2,3,4
Why
Hawthorn is distinctive for its tartness, with sugar coatings, sugar and honey adding sweetness in several preparations. Historical writing particularly notes the sourness of large fruit and the practice of eating it after frost.2,3
Impact and influence
An October 2025 report recorded about 13,000 mu of hawthorn in Jinzhou, Hebei, with annual production exceeding 30,000 metric tons and processing into dried fruit, wine and paste. A September 25, 2025 report recorded about 47,000 mu in Xintai, Shandong, where harvested fruit was sorted, graded and boxed. These figures describe the two localities, not national totals.4,5