As the first shoots of spring emerge along Beijing's riverbanks, Mai Dou (pseudonym) is already there, tools in hand and child in tow, gathering wild greens and marking the season in her own way.
On weekends, the 30-year-old and her child set off for riverbanks or wooded hills around the capital's suburbs, stretching out toward the Changping and Yanqing districts and the forests of Daxing district, in search of spring's tender bounty: shepherd's purse, Chinese onion, alfalfa, dandelion greens and even fresh goji shoots.
"It used to be just a simple fun," Mai told the Global Times. "But now it's become a kind of family tradition. We walk, talk, explore together … and come home with a basket of greens."
She snaps photos of the places she visits and the tools she uses, posting them to her social media account on China's lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu, where numerous users across the country share similar foraging stories and swap tips on routes, identification of the plants and recipes.
Mai is far from alone. A growing number of Chinese are rediscovering wild edible plants known collectively as chuncai in Chinese ("spring vegetables" or "spring greens"), gathering them in parks, fields, riverbanks and along trails.
Bu Xiting, an associate research fellow with the School of Cultural Industries Management at the Communication University of China, believes that foraging wild greens allows people to slow down and savor the moment.
"Unlike costly, curated camping trips, all you need is a small spade and a bamboo basket. Feeling the soil and discovering your harvest allows young people to reconnect with the simple joys of the surrounding natural world, often overlooked due to an immersive digital lifestyle," Bu told the Global Times.
In fact, foraging spring vegetables is hardly new in China. Farmers and villagers have long harvested wild greens to supplement their diets after winter, when fresh produce was scarce, explained Zhu Yi, associate professor at the China Agricultural University in Beijing.
"Eating spring vegetables is part of China's culinary DNA," said Zhu. "They reflect Chinese people's enduring connection to nature and the timeless wisdom of Chinese cuisine, which celebrates seasonal ingredients."
Hands-on delights
For many who forage, it's not simply about eating, but about the experience that brings the most joy and fun.
"We don't go out just to dig up greens," said Mai. "It's a little hike, time together to take in the surroundings. The sunshine, the breeze and the fresh air make it special, and sometimes we just slow down and see what we can find along the way."
Over the past weekend, Mai and her child harvested a bundle of shepherd's purse and headed home to make a simple breakfast: hand-pulled flatbread folded with greens, glass noodles and eggs.
For others, foraging is spontaneous. "Picking greens is one of those simple pleasures," shared Zhou Xinyue, a 25-year-old resident in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, who also shared her foraging trips online. "When you walk, you find something, then you make something delicious with what you found - it's a very satisfying loop."
Zhou visited the edges of a park path with friends late in March and found that many greens had already gone to seed. But she still came away with dandelion, wild chives and small stalks of wild celery.
"I had done my research ahead of time, but a lot of the spring vegetables had already been picked up," she said. "Still, it was fun - picking whatever we could find, then going home to make stir-fried spring vegetables."