Autumn is the best time to visit Beijing. The sun is warm, the breeze is cool, and it’s prime fruit season!
One of the best things to do in Beijing is to get out of it. Come the weekend, city dwellers like to leave the noise and dust of the city behind and instead, head for the countryside for some fresh air, scenery, and good ol’-fashioned country cooking.
(I’m going to give a warning in advance for the extremely photo-heavy post.)
If you’ve seen my Instagram updates, you’ll have seen that I’m in Beijing at the moment. My mom and sister are both in from California, so I’ve flown in too to meet up with them. Once again, I’m so thankful for the flexibility I have. Beijing has proven to be quite a good middle-ground meeting place!
Family reunions are not easy to come by anymore, with everyone scattered all over the place and limited vacation times and such. It’s been a year again since I’ve seen my sister, and years since her last visit to Beijing.
What better re-bonding activity than a day out pear picking in the Beijing countryside? Perfect autumnal activity, peaceful setting, tons of photo opportunities. Check, check, and check.
On a breezy and slightly overcast Sunday morning, our two families (mine and my aunt’s) drove up to Beijing’s famous pear-producing area, BuLaoTun (不老屯).
The pear orchards lay on the north bank of Beijing’s MiYun reservoir – a huge lake surrounded by rolling hills where the entire city of Beijing gets its drinking water. The reservoir is also famous for its fish. Beijingers love coming up here to eat fish in one of the many country-cooking restaurants.
We drove through windy mountain roads overlooking the glittering water. And finally ended up in the little village of BuLaoTun.
This little outing is all thanks to my Auntie Hui, who also happened to be in town from Japan. She hooked us up with her old college friends, who graciously invited us to visit their little pear orchard for a day of country living.
Auntie Hui with her friends, our gracious hosts
picking chestnuts!
The couple has had a couple of successful technology companies, and now lives a leisurely retired life. For fun, they bought a little patch of orchard in BuLaoTun. Just a little something to bring joy into their lives. (Oh, lifestyles of the wealthy.)
And then it was into the orchard we go! The place is gorgeous. Beautiful morning glory flowers dotted our path as we headed into the lush foliage.
my grandma and my sister
me, my grandma, my sister, and my mom
Upon walking into the orchard, one of the first sights that greeted us was a group of chickens.
By day, the chickens are free to roam wherever they please. And by night, they fly up to sleep on the surrounding pear trees, freely munching on juicy pears. These are probably the happiest cage-free chickens you’ll ever find!
(They probably taste yummy too since they grew up eating pears. :P)
The gaggle of geese are the guardians. Their job is to protect the chicken from coyotes. The geese are so funny. They always moved together as one group in perfect formation, never one stepping out of line. They take their bodyguard job seriously.
Soon enough, it was time to get to work!
We were taught to use a contraption they invented to reach the pears high up in a tree.
It works alright….
… but picking pears by hand is even easier and more fun!
And some of us enjoyed the chance to be big kids again by climbing the trees.
This region is famous for producing the best pears due to its ideal climate. There are two kinds of pears:
Golden pears (tang li) which are smaller in size, have thick rough skin, and are sour-sweet in taste.
And the best are the Chinese pears, called ya li (鸭梨; translation: “duck bill pears”). This is an ancient heirloom cultivar that dates back 600 years! They have a thinner smooth skin with refreshing super crisp flesh. They’re prized for being incredibly sweet and juicy.
The harvest date for ya li is in late September, so we were able to catch the last of the harvest.
Legend goes that when Emperor QianLong (who reigned in the 1700’s and was China’s most adored emperor) passed by BuLaoTun and stayed for a night, he was largely unimpressed with all food offerings. At their wits end, the village people brought before him a plate of the local ya li. His eyes immediately lit up and upon the first bite, he was amazed by their sweet juiciness and delicious crispness. Because of his endorsement, the pears from this region achieved countrywide fame.
The owners are adamant that absolutely no pesticides are used. This is organic pears at their finest. You can eat them straight from the tree! There’s nothing like working up a sweat, and then plucking a pear from the tree and sinking your teeth into its sweet, juicy flesh.
my uncle stealing a bite as he works
We spent a morning wandering through the pear trees and filling up our boxes with the fruits. Of course, with a ton of goofing off and photo breaks.
can you tell we’re twins? :)
In the end, I think we took home about 12+ boxes of pears in between our two families, with each box containing 24+ pears. I had no idea how we can possibly eat them all, but we’ve been making a pretty good dent. Let’s just say that there are still a LOT of pears in our future.
the farmer hauling away our haul
While walking out of the orchard, we made bouquets of morning glory for Grandma.
But when saying bye to the billy goats, they ate them all!
After a morning of hard work behind us, we were all ravenous. And with that, we headed to a little country restaurant for some true home-style cooking (see what a Chinese country meal is like in the next post!).
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omg the goats!
I know.. they were so cute, especially the baby!
aww! really loved this post, especially seeing pics of you and your family together. you grandma looks super strong! and is this the sister who was very ill last year? everyone looks like they’re having such a great time.
i bet the chinese pears must be sooo fresh and delicious since you picked them from the tree! i have never realized how delicious freshly picked apples were until i moved to new england and went apple picking for the first time. the crispness is just unbelievable.. there is no comparison to store bought apples! i love chinese pears so i bet your pears you picked must taste divine!
ps – just started following you on instagram! =D (although I have a different screen name on IG)
Thanks so much Soapie! This is that sister (I only have one!), and it’s so great to see her doing so well now. These pears were sooooo good! I swear I’ve never had pears so juicy. I bet freshly picked apples are amazing too!
Ooh, I think I see you on Instagram (private account?) because it says New England and Khmer culture, but I can’t be sure. Let me know and I’d love to follow you! :)
i also have one sister (my only sibling) so i totally can relate to your sisterly love =) i’m so thankful to see y’all smile and hanging out and fruit picking. that’s one of our fav things to do here too.
yes that’s me on IG! =D
Yay I found you and added you!
I hope you get to hang out with your sister a lot! :)
Aww, this is so fun really! How about making pear pie or pear with oatmeal? I would also eat them as a snack 2 to 3 times a day! I love them with a bit of salt. Is that weird?
I’ve never tried that! But the Chinese pears are so good on their own, I’ve been snacking on them daily! I think we’ll have to use the golden pears some other way (like making pear soup) because they’re not as good just to munch on, haha.
This looks so fun…. and is so interesting to see what a pear orchard looks like on the other side of the world :) I love Asian and Chinese pears the best! How cool you can all meet up every so often.
The Chinese pears are so so delicious! Yeah! I’m glad we can meet up in Beijing and be with the rest of our family here too. And it’s super affordable for me to get from Southeast Asian to here too, hehe.
I love a good pear! It can be hard to find a good one in the shops sometimes, but straight from the tree, that has to be delicious!
What a great day! And damn, I love these photos! They are so sharp and bright!
Thanks! The pretty background helped :).
I usually would never think to buy pears on my own, but these are so delicious! Store bought pears probably can’t compare now after this!
Yay for family time! Especially after not seeing your sister for so long. That countryside is beautiful, that lake looks so inviting! Pear picking sounds like a lot of fun, I love all your photos especially the pear earrings. That one’s a framer! I’m impressed at how much you managed to take home with you – you could always stew them and freeze them if you run out of ideas?! Then you can enjoy beautiful pears in the depths of winter :)
Also I now want guard geese. HOW cute are they?!
I know!! The geese are so cute, and who knew that they are such good natural security guards? :)
I think we’re actually through with most of the ya li (Chinese pears) now because we’d just snack on them throughout the day! But the golden ones aren’t so good haha, so we’ll probably stew them or press into juice.
I’ve gotta give my mom the credit for the pear earrings… it was her idea and she took the photo!
it looks wonderful ! now I want to eat some pears:)
Thanks Tanja! I hope you find some yummy Chinese pears in your local store!
So fun! I can’t believe it’s been a year since you saw your sister! I feel like you were just with her while she was in the hospital. Time flies so quickly these days. That photo of the water and hills is incredible and I would never guess it was taken in Beijing! I’m taking Mandarin right now and hope to study abroad in China next summer! It’d be so cool to meet up, depending on where you are at that time of course! I’m so excited. :-D
Oh no way!! That’s be awesome!! If I’m in Asia area next summer still, I can arrange to meet you in China! My grandma already said that any friends of mine is welcomed (as long as her health is good) hehe. How are you liking Mandarin? It sounds like it’ll be really hard to learn from scratch!
What beautiful photos, wow Anna! :) Sounds like you had such a great time and what a fun way to spend your time together. Those are some good looking pears!! :D
Thanks Marcella! It was a really fun family activity. :)
What fun!! Love the pear earring pictures!! ;) I don’t blame you for escaping the city – everyone needs a break at some point. ;)
Thanks Sara! It’s definitely nice to get out of the city, see some greenery, and get some fresh air (especially with that infamous Beijing smog!).
I imagine Beijing to be really noisy and crowded so I’d probably spent every weekend in the countryside if I were living there :D
I actually don’t think it’s too bad in terms of noise & crowd (though traffic is horrendous)! Because I feel like the city is pretty spread out, so you don’t really get a huge concentration of people in one place (unlike Tokyo or Hong Kong). It’s really nice to get out in the countryside though!
Ah this looks like my ideal fall day! I’ve been apple picking many times, but never pear picking. And I LOVE pears. So awesome that you got to share this experience with family! I had no idea that you and your sister were twins. I actually thought she was you in a few pictures when I looked quickly, until I saw you guys side by side. I totally understand what it’s like to want to escape a city too. The best part of Santiago is how easy it is to escape and hit the beach, the mountains or the countryside :D
Haha no way! I seriously don’t think we look alike AT ALL. I think it’s much more apparent in person. Santiago is kind of like Southern California in a way that you can go up to the mountains in the morning and be at the beach in the afternoon!
This is the most awesome spot for a family reunion! Like gosh, can my family reunions be in Beijing?
I’ve actually never been pear picking, it seems like something I’d love to do!
Danielle @ afloat on a full sea
Hi Danielle! Thanks for stopping by :). Pear picking was so fun, but it was definitely the family that was there and made it fun!
looks like a fun family day and a great way to escape the city :) and holy cow, that lake looks amazing!
Too bad no one is allowed to play in the lake/reservoir! It’s strictly to grow fish and for drinking water to Beijing.
Are the ya li here like the Asian pears they sell in grocery stores in North America (based on your description it sounds pretty similar) cause those are SO good and I can only imagine them fresh from the tree.
I think it’s the same as Asian pears (though as I know it, it originated from China). They’re yellow/green in color and if it’s SUPER sweet and juicy, then that’s probably the one!
This looks like such a fun family day out! And I love that photo of you, your sister, mom and grandmother! Three beautiful generations. I love the concept of picking up fruits, but I’m such a wimp when it comes to bugs hahaha And I love that they have those little contraption to catch them haha so useful!
Thanks so much Camila! It was so nice to have all of us together again as it’s been years. Oh I hate bugs too, but there wasn’t that many (aside from a couple of mosquito bites). It was such a beautiful day in the countryside!