As the lychee fruit is ready for harvest in mid-summer, the 15th Lychee Festival of Shenzhen University is being celebrated on the campus. This year, Shenzhen University welcomes a bumper harvest of lychee fruits with 521 lychee trees bearing fruits in Yuehai campus, accounting for about 30% of the total. An output of around 25,000kilograms and 1,500 kilograms is expected in Yuehai campus and Lihu campus (phase 1)respectively. Aslychees mature at different rate, the fruits are harvestedover the course of several weeks from June 10 to July 10.
Home to nearly 2,000 lychee tresscovering an area of up to 20,000-30,000 square meters, Shenzhen University is also known as“Lychee Garden” and“LycheeUniversity”. At present, there are about 1,650 lychee trees in Yuehai campus with a variety of cultivars (Nuomici, Guiwei, Heiye, Huaizhi, Feizixiao, Baila, Ziniangxi, etc.), of which Huaizhi and Heiyeaccount for nearly 90%. The lychee fruits of the trees in Yuehai campus are especially worth tasting as the treeswere planted more than 80 years ago andhave beenall preserved since the establishment of Shenzhen University in 1983, allowing us to appreciate the same landscape as that of the time when the university was founded.
Today,the abundance of lychee trees planted on the campus not only constitutes an important part of the landscape of Shenzhen University, but it is also an important element of the campus culture, becomingan exclusive emotional bond between SZUers. Since its first celebration in 2006, the Lychee Festival has offered a unique opportunity for teachers and students to enjoy the lychee fruits picked by themselves and activities to promote mutual understanding and communication.
However, because of the impact of theCOVID-19pandemic, many students cannot return to university to celebrate the festival this year.In order to keep the tradition andfulfill the wish of the students for this annual event, Shenzhen University has planned awealth ofonline and offline,on-campus and off-campus activities, providing students with unique experiences in which they can enjoy a virtual campus tour and watch the live stream of the lychee harvest on the campus. For example, the senior graduates are invited to try lychees of various cultivars in the live-stream; activities such as online call for“10,000 ways to eat lychees” and“My first day at Shenzhen University” are organized.
During the festival, the lychees are picked and dispensed to students for free on the same day. This year, Shenzhen University has also sent lychees to some students via fresh delivery, some of whom can even enjoy the fresh lychees on the same day.
Media are also invited to experience and reportonthe Lychee Festival. More than 20 mainstream media havecovered the festival such asXinhuanet, China National Radio,Guangdong Radio and Television,Nanfang Daily, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, andShenzhen Satellite TV, among which the article posted on the Xinhuanet Wechat Official Accounthas been viewed more than 70,000 times; Sina Weibo’s topic“Shenzhen Universitysends students lychees via fresh delivery” ranked on“hot topics” list andhasreceived nearly 2.6 million views. In addition, the article posted on Shenzhen University Wechat Official Account has also been viewed more than 130,000 times.
(Department of Publicity, ShenzhenUniversity)
(Some images by Shenzhen Special Zone Daily andSouthern Metropolis Daily)
