Legend is a legend after all, but it is a fact that China has pumpkins in the east and pumpkins in the west, but there are no pumpkins in the north. Now the big melon, called wax gourd, is named Donggua because it is produced along the coast of the East China Sea. However, according to the origin of various melons, most of the previous legends are unreliable. Let's not talk about whether there are north melons in China. We can find a lot of evidence only from historical records. Watermelon was discovered in China in the early 10th century, when the Turks defeated Uighur, and the melon seeds obtained from the western regions were in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. Pumpkin was introduced from the south in16th century. So in the early Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong had no choice at all. In fact, among the fruits and vegetables that people in China eat at present, only wax gourd and sweet-scented osmanthus are native to China, while others are exotic varieties. Wax gourd has a long history of cultivation in China, and its birthplace is in China and India. It is common in China, but very rare in Europe and America.
The wax gourd cultivated all over the country is the largest in Guangdong and this province, which is resistant to transportation. Modern people's use of wax gourd is generally limited to cooking, or frying, or making soup, and sometimes it is used as a cup of wax gourd. However, in the past, there were many ways to use wax gourd in this province, and sometimes it was very important to need it. As far as use is concerned, in addition to dishes, it is really sacred to refine winter melon tea to relieve summer heat and thirst. At present, this usage is still retained, but the scope of use has been reduced a lot.