VietNamNet Bridge – Several weeks before the Lunar New Year, many streets in Hanoi are flooded with forest peach trees that arrive from mountainous provinces like Hoa Binh, Son La, Yen Bai, Cao Bang, and Bac Kan. The popularity of this elegant hobby of the lowland people also means the "massacre" of wild peach.

In the last days of the lunar year, the weather on the Cao Bac Pass, which connects Cao Bang and Bac Kan provinces, was very cold, with thick fog all the day.

But every day, Nong Van Hai, 19, had to get up very early to go to the forest with his younger brother to seek pretty wild peach trees to chop down.

Hai said, for the past three years, thanks to selling wild peach trees, his family has earned money to prepare for the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday.

The Tay ethnic boy said that in the past, wild peach trees were everywhere. In recent years, when townspeople began to like decorating their houses with wild peach trees during Tet, local people flocked to the forest to hunt peach trees. Therefore, it is no longer easy to find a fine wild peach tree today.

“A few years ago, many lowland people came here to hire us to go to the forest to cut down wild peach to bring the trees to the plains. Now we do not do that work anymore. We directly go to the forest to cut the trees and take them to cities for sale,” Hai said.

According to Hai, he can sell wild peach trees for VND200,000 to VND1 million ($9-$90) and higher prices for ancient trees. However, to have beautiful peach trees, he has to go very deeply into the forest.

In the provinces of Son La and Hoa Binh, the time before the Tet holiday has become the “festival” of wild peach hunters. Previously they cut down peach trees along the cliffs but when the trees become rare, they go deep into the jungle to find old trees.

In Hanoi, wild peaches appeared for nearly a week and the prices varied, depending on the shape and age of the trees.

The trees of 10-15 years old are priced VND4-VND5 million ($200-$250), VND8-VND10 million ($400-$500) for the trees of 20-30 years old and up to VND15 million ($700) for the trees of over 30 years. Most of the trees have not blossomed yet.

Ms. Ho Thi Huong, a wild peach trader, said she went to northern mountainous provinces several months ago to buy wild peach trees to serve the capital market this Tet.

Huong said traders could earn a high profit if the wild peach blossoms came out near Tet.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Ba, a wild peach trader with four years of experience, said that he could earn VND50-VND70 million ($2,500-$3,500)/Tet.

“To earn that amount of profit, we had to spend several months in the mountainous region like Moc Chau (Son La), Mau Son (Lang Son), Mai Chau (Hoa Binh) ... to seek wild peach trees on the top of mountains and hire equipment and local people to transport them to the plains,” Ba said.

He said that it took him several days to carry big trees from the mountain to the highway.

According to Ba, in the past few years, due to the increasing need of urban people for wild peach trees, the number of large and beautiful wild peach trees has dropped significantly.

Along with the hunting of wild peach trees to serve townspeople each Tet, the forests have also become desolate.

GD&XH