The document describes Ronald van Warmerdam's visit to a cucumber greenhouse in rural China near Beijing on January 1, 2010. He sees plastic greenhouses on the trip and stops to investigate one, where he meets a woman growing cucumbers. Inside the greenhouse, it is over 30 degrees Celsius due to the plastic covering and straw rolls that trap heat. The woman earns income during the winter months growing cucumbers this way before switching to other crops in the summer. These greenhouses help supply vegetables for Beijing during the cold winter season.

1. The Cucumber Greenhouse. 暖房/大棚
It is January 1, 2010. Daphne and I are on our way to Chengde.
Our friend, driver and teacher of China is Wang Ping. A very nice
man who we met through my colleague Michiel Bosman. Chengde is
a town of 200.000 inhabitants and situated about 225 km northeast
of Beijing.
On the way through the country we see these plastic greenhouses.
We want to find out more about it.
So we step out to take pictures.
On the front the greenhouse consists of plastic. The front is pointing
south in the direction of the sun. The back of the greenhouse is a
closed wall of mud bricks.
On the top you see roles of straw.
During the day the straw roles are coiled on top of the greenhouse.
So the heat and light of the sun can enter through the plastic.
There is no additional heat needed to warm the greenhouse!!. Great!
The greenhouse runs entirely on solar energy.
In the
evening
when the
sun goes down the rolls of straw are unrolled to cover the plastic so to keep the heat inside the greenhouse.
And now . I want to go inside!! ....my curiosity is too big!!.
Vaguely I see someone working in the greenhouse.
So I think ... .. I try and see what happens and go in through the little door at the front.
Wang Ping starts laughing when I step inside ... .. "Hey Hey he is going in!!" he shouts to Daphne ... and of course he
and Daphne quickly follow behind me.
In the meantime villagers walk out of their houses to see what these foreigners (Waiguoren) are doing In there quiet
distant village.

2. In the greenhouse a nice woman is at work ...
I show her my camera to point out that I want to make pictures. She welcomes me in and asks if I speak Chinese. But I don’t understand and I not yes to make a friendly
impression.
She has no problem I take some pictures as long as I don’t shoot her.
The greenhouse is a cucumber nursery!
Very hot! Over 30 degrees Celsius! And extremely humid like a sauna.
Wang Ping enters and starts talking to the lady. She is very friendly, proud of her greenhouse and willing to
answer all our questions. She invites us to pick some cucumbers so we can taste them. They are delicious!
The whole country around Beijing is now bare, cold and dry. The contrast with the inside
of the greenhouse could not be greater. Inside its warm, humid and green!
The woman earns her money in the winter with the growing of cucumbers in her

3. greenhouse. In the summer she and her husband grow wheat, corn and vegetables outside in open air.
In spring the temperature in the greenhouse runs up to 50 degrees Celsius. Then she opens the top of the plastic covering to let the surplus of heat out.
She tells us that she collects between 20 and 30 cucumbers a plant per winter. And she earns about 20,000 RMB with it. That is about 2000 euro. She is very satisfied with it.
The work is not to heavy and takes little time per day. Her husband is working elsewhere but is always back in time to lower the straw rolls.
We say goodbye to the lady to continue our trip to Chengde. Enriched with an special experience.
On Google Maps we find the place of our greenhouse. It is called Fuyingzixiang. All over the country there are these green houses that provide Beijing of vegetables. We
believe this is a very sustainable way to grow vegetables.
This is my report of January 1 2010...
Ronald van Warmerdam.
About vegetables in: China Daily. 7 January 2010
(100 RMB Yuan is ca. 10 EURO)
Vegetable prices have increased substantially as the worst snowstorm and cold front in a half-century hit part of the country since Jan 2. But so far, vegetable supplies are
sufficient and stable. In Beijing, the price of some vegetables, such as Chinese cabbage, cucumber, and eggplant, have risen by more than 30 percent. "I bought cucumber for
2.6 yuan (38 cents) a kilogram at the end of December. However, the price has risen to 3.5 yuan a kilogram now," a customer in a Beijing food market told China Daily
yesterday.
Similar price hikes also have appeared in other cities.
Most vegetable prices have increased in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, according to statistics from the city's price control administration.
Spinach saw the largest price hike yesterday, rising from 2.8 yuan to 5 yuan a kilogram. In Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, most vegetables are priced nearly the same
as peak prices during Spring Festival last year.
In Shouguang city, Shandong province, which is a main vegetable supplier for more than 50 cities, including Beijing, Tianjin and Jinan, the local vegetable output has been
reduced by 30 percent.
"Since Jan 3, some vegetable growers started to complain that the plants in their green houses have withered and rotted due to the weather," said Sun Zhigang, director of the
agriculture information center in Shouguang.
Measures against the cold have already been implemented, including more fertilizer and straw coverings to maintain the temperature of the land and prevent vegetables from
frost damage, Sun said.
Bad road conditions were also a main reason for the rise in vegetable prices. The typical six- or seven-hour journey needed to transport vegetables from Shouguang to Beijing
has this week taken up to 12 hours.
"At present, nearly 20 transport vehicles from the market have been stuck on the highways due to the heavy snow," said He Ming, manager of Shandong Shouguang
Vegetable Wholesale Market, who added the road conditions seem to be improving.
Fortunately, the current vegetable supply was ample and stable in most cities. According to the statistics from Xinfadi Agro Wholesale Market, the largest wholesale market in
Beijing, more than 60 kinds of vegetables, weighing in at 13.2 million kg, were available in the market yesterday. This is an increase of more than 1 million kg compared to the
supply on Jan 2.
Efforts to ensure the country's wheat and vegetable safety have also been urged by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Seven special working teams to oversee and guide agricultural work have been dispatched to the eight provinces with major wheat and vegetable production, including Hebei,
Liaoning, Jiangsu, Shandong and Anhui.