Harvest Festival: Crab farmers in Suzhou ready for a 'golden' harvest

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Sunday marks China's first Harvest Festival. The festival was created for farmers to celebrate their annual harvest. CGTN's Xu Mengqi reports from Suzhou on how crab farmers there are preparing for this year's harvest season.

It's that time of year in China! Time to gather around the dining table with family for a special mid-autumn treat, the hairy crab. The delicacy is priced at a few dollars up to 100 dollars each. The most expensive of them come from here, Yangcheng Lake, just outside of the Eastern Chinese city of Suzhou.

ZHOU XUELONG CRAB FARMER "Because the soil and water of Yangcheng Lake has a high level of calcium, the crabs have strong claws. Simply boil it and its taste is already rich. There is no need for any additional seasoning."

Zhou Xuelong, a longtime crab farmer at Yangcheng Lake, speaks of hairy crabs with a particular fondness. Thirty years ago, crab farming hardly existed. To stop the hairy crab from going extinct, the local government persuaded fishermen at the lake to start raising crabs, and Zhou was the first to answer the call.

ZHOU XUELONG CRAB FARMER "These are all fresh from the lake. If we transport them to other places, there'll be less water in their lungs and you won't see these bubbles."

After years of trial and error, Zhou finally knew what crabs feed on, and what tools to use to stop them from escaping.

And with just days to go before this year's harvest season, Zhou, like every other crab farmer, is taking extra care of his crabs by feeding them more.

ZHOU XUELONG CRAB FARMER "This year's weather was really favorable for us, in particular, several typhoons cooled our local temperature down. I think our production this year will increase 10 to 15 percent."

Working with other crab farmers, the cooperative that Zhou helped launch is expected to harvest up to 1.6 million crabs this year. And delivery workers are already starting to load up their trucks.

ZHANG JIAYONG EXPRESS DELIVERY PROFESSIONAL "We usually start to get busy around the mid-autumn festival, and during the busiest times, we collect tens of thousands of boxes of goods every day from the crab market or from the farmers and send them all over China."

With improved farming techniques and better-quality larvae, Zhou is confident that his crabs will grow even bigger this year.

And while waiting to collect this year's basket of gold, he showed me how to correctly eat one of these things.

XU MENGQI YANGCHENG LAKE, SUZHOU "It takes some skills to dissect the crab, but all in all it is a really gratifying experience. The meat tastes sweet and delicate, and the roe is succulent and creamy. No wonder the hairy crabs are a seasonal favorite."

As night falls, admirers of the hairy crab gather at restaurants around Yangcheng Lake to taste the delicacy while it's at its freshest.

Crab farmers, in the meantime, are just about to get on their boats ahead of a full night's watch over the crabs that will become their cash cows in the months to come. Xu Mengqi, CGTN, Yangcheng Lake, Suzhou.