【10.08.09 英国每日电讯】Chinese soldiers invade India in pursuit of valuable 'love flow

青蛙小王子

The 'jellylike fungus,' a mushroom known as cordyceps sinensis, which grows inside the bodies of dead insect lavae.

It grows at high altitude on remote Himalayan peaks along the border areas of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and India and has been prized as a herbal medicine in Tibet and China since the 15th century.



Indian officials said troops from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) are sneaking across the disputed MacMahon Line border.
While the fungus, which has been dubbed the 'love flower,' is not particularly valued in India, its value has soared in China as an aphrodisiac.
"There have been instances of sporadic intrusion into the Indian side by the PLA in small groups .They come, stay there for a while and then go back," said Arunachal Pradesh's home minister Tako Dabi. "When they meet locals or are challenged by security officials the Chinese military personnel usually say they have entered Indian territory to collect wild fungus from the mountains. They call it the 'love flower".
Gen J.J Singh, Arunachal Pradesh's Governor, sought to play down the seriousness of 'incursions' yesterday, and said Chinese villagers were the main smugglers coming across into India.
The issue of incursion remains highly sensitive for both countries which fought a border war in 1962 in which China captured but later returned Tawang district, which it claims is part of Tibet.
General Singh said talks between the two countries were currently trying to clarify the exact position of 'MacMahon Line'- the border drawn in pencil on a map by a Sir Henry MacMahon, British India's foreign secretary in 1914.
General Singh said the 'pencil line' on the map is more than two miles wide on the ground.
"Our people carry out tours based on our perception of the border and leave souvenirs like biscuits to show they were there and they [the Chinese] do the same," he said. He had seen the 'love flowers' growing in water-filled mountain crannies and described them as "opaque, like jelly, and tasteless.
The price has shot up and there are villagers of hunter gatherers on both sides who make a living out of it," he said. "You get a feeling of…well it makes you feel strong," he said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7935350/Chinese-soldiers-invade-India-in-pursuit-of-valuable-love-flower.html