Editor's Note:China is divided into as many culinary regions as there are different ethnic groups. Its geographical diversity and kaleidoscopic cultural profiles contribute to the unending banquet of flavors.
It is a graceful tree with large, elegant leaves that look just a little like oak. And like the oak, it is also a deciduous tree, but here the similarities end. In fact, it is botanically closer to the rose than any other plant.
The hawthorn is Beijing's best-known native tree, growing wild in the hilly ranges that surround the Forbidden City. Its fruit - sour little globes with rather starchy pulp - are made into bingtang hulu, candied haw, the classic hutong snack that every Beijing child grew up eating, and which many tourists are eager to try.
It is a forgiving tree, tolerant of drought and poor soil, dropping its leaves to face winter naked, then sending out tough bunches of shoots when the weather warms.
Before long, clusters of snow-white flowers will cloud the dark green foliage, sending out a subtle scent to perfume the neighborhood. The flowers are short-lived, and the petals soon carpet the ground below, leaving the tiny fruit to slowly mature.
By the end of summer, they will have grown to the size of marbles. The green fruit develops a glowing pink blush, deepening to a dark red that gives the fruit its country name - shanli hong (red fruit of the mountain).
Hawthorn is eagerly harvested wherever it grows, which is all over Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Sha'anxi, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and Heilongjiang provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.
It is most often cut, cored, dried and stored, and seldom eaten fresh. Its natural acidity makes the mouth pucker.
The dehydrated fruit slices are an essential ingredient in suanmeitang, the sour plum drink that Beijingers drink in vast quantities to combat the summer heat.
Beijingers also like an intensely sweet jam, chaohongguo, which is hawthorn fruits cooked down with rock sugar. And, of course, there are hawthorn candies, either flattened into wafer-thin discs or cut into long, thin strips and coated with granulated sugar.
