Garlic is good for health and can do wonders for life expectancy, according to some of China's longest-living people.

That's what more than 12,000 elderly people aged 80 years and above, who live in Jinxiang County, will tell you. Jinxiang, in east China's Shandong Province, has a population of 600,000.

Statistics show that there have been as many as 96 centenarians at one time in Jinxiang, dubbed China's "land of garlic."

Scientists regard garlic as a kind of natural antibiotic and health food.

Several years ago, Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers compared garlic grown in different parts of China. They found that Jinxiang produced large-size garlic with moderate piquancy and claimed it was effective in preventing cancer.

Reliable statistics show that the incidence of cancer in Jinxiang is markedly lower than in other parts of China and the average life-span in the county is five years longer than the national average.

The area planted in garlic in Jinxiang County has expanded from more than 3,300 hectares ten years ago to the current 33,000 hectares, topping other regions in the country.

Jinxiang now has a garlic wholesale market with an annual turnover of 300 million yuan. The county also has more than 200 garlic processing plants, which mainly produce dehydrated garlic slices, garlic powder and oil.

Jinxiang now exports garlic to more than 70 countries and regions worldwide including Japan, the United States and Russia. Its export volume accounts for 70 percent of China's total.

(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2002)