Dragonfruit is a somewhat mysterious fruit to westerners who’ve never encountered this tasty and visually-pleasing fruit. Normally pink with green leaves on the outside, dragonfruit is a type of cactus fruit. You can normally find dragonfruit in supermarkets and fruit stores around Beijing year-round. Let’s learn more about dragonfruit below.

Dragonfruit is a very beautiful and exotic-looking fruit grown in Southeast Asia, Central and South America. This plant is actually a type of cactus, with juicy, sweet white flesh on the inside, contrasted with its small, edible black seeds. There are three varieties: pink on the inside, white flesh on the outside; pink outside/pink flesh; and yellow outside/white flesh. The most common variety is the pink outside/white flesh dragonfruit. In Beijing, the majority of the dragonfruit you can purchase is grown in Hainan, China. What’s great about this fruit is that it’s in season year-round. Prices for this fruit run about 5-8 RMB for each 500 grams.

Consuming dragonfruit is a pretty fun ordeal. It’s an easy fruit to cut and eat. Just cut through the fruit in half and quarter it. From there, you can cut the quartered pieces into small cubes. The flesh of the fruit is similar to a kiwi, so if you don’t like cutting it into pieces, you can just eat it with a spoon.