Làolíng

Laoling lies on the northern Shandong plain and is renowned for its small golden-thread dates. When a partly dried fruit is pulled apart, fine strands of sugar and pectin stretch between its halves. Date cultivation flourished here under the Ming and Qing. A county gazetteer records that in 1591 the magistrate Wang Dengyong encouraged the planting of date trees and required offenders to plant them as a form of atonement. Laoling dates were later presented to the Qing court.