Fried prawns with shihu is a highlight in a feast featuring the herb from Yunnan's Longling county. Photos by Ye Jun / China Daily

Mango Tree branches out

More than just seafood

Food as a health booster is a unique part of Chinese culture. Cantonese people often put herbs in their soups to benefit their body. Many people for instance, use pears to help with seasonal cough and dryness in autumn.

More effective herbs such as ginseng, which is often boiled in soup to replenish energy, has become rather expensive. But recently, experts from Yunnan's Longling county came to Beijing to introduce a more affordable local herb - shihu, the stem of the noble dendrobium.

Shihu is an orchid plant adnascent to trees such as pear or peach. It has beautiful flowers. The stem is used as a common herbal medicine. It has been used for more than 2,000 years in traditional Chinese medicine, according to the China Pharmaceutical Culture Society.

The Taoist Canon, a collection of Taoist literature from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), refers to shihu as the first of nine "celestial herbs" with great health benefits. Some other herbs on the list include Tianshan mountain snow lotus; gingseng weighing 150 grams; lingzhi, i.e. ganoderma from remote mountains; pearl from the bottom of the sea; and winter worm summer herb, or Chinese caterpillar fungus.

The Compendium of Materia Medica, written in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) by Li Shizhen (1518-1593), says shihu can replenish weakness of the internal organs, boost the yin factor and benefit the minor particles of the body. To be more specific the herb "strengthens the stomach and intestines, replenishes the kidneys and strengthens the bones, makes one feel light-bodied and prolongs life span".