Lychees, with their reddish spiky skin around a delicious, jelly-like pulp are much favored fruit around the world, and China is no different.

They taste great but unfortunately get spoil really quickly. However, thanks to the modern transportation it’s not difficult to find cheap, ripe Lychees in Beijing, even though the northern capital is far away from the southern China where Lychees are grown.

More than a thousand years ago, a woman who lived in Chang’an, today Xi’an, capital of Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, was also fond of Lychees. She was Yang Yuhuan, the favorite concubine of Emperor Tang Xuanzong (685-762) and one of the most beautiful and fashionable women in Chinese history.