For more than 600 years, the people of Ningxia have cultivated Goji berry plants in their region’s deep windblown loess soil. Practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine who wanted to use all parts of the plant fed a growing demand for this nutrient-dense “superfood.” Today, the plant’s berries, as well as its flower, stem, root and leaf, are still used to treat a variety of ailments. Despite Goji berry cultivation springing up in other parts of the country, Ningxia remains China’s important source for therapeutic-grade Goji berries that can be used in medicine, globally known as Lycium Barbarum.

Although the harsh, arid climate of Ningxia is essentially a desert, the Yellow River (Huang He) provides Goji berry plants with essential moisture. Throughout hundreds of years of cultivation, a complex system of irrigation canals has also been developed to nourish the region’s most renowned export. With added water, the 300-foot deep loess of the Ningxia Plain becomes fertile enough to produce some of the highest quality Goji berries in the world.