As lychee season arrives, so does the season of university enrollment, with major institutions across Guangdong Province showcasing their unique charm.

On June 13, the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) launched its annual Lychee Cultural Festival, handing out an estimated 40 tons of homegrown lychees to students, faculty members, and staff. The beloved Lingnan fruit has become what many affectionately call the “sweetest enrollment brochure”, blending scientific education with humanistic care.

This year’s lychee harvest has been especially fruitful. About 2,000 carefully cultivated trees—roughly 10% of the 20,000 on campus— have been carefully cultivated to produce around 40 tons of fruit.

Premium varieties such as Guiwei, Nuomici, and Feizixiao make up 90% of the yield. Harvesting runs from June 13 to 20, with lychees picked in the morning and delivered to campus by noon to ensure peak freshness and flavor.

Beyond their ecological and agricultural value, the lychee orchards at SUSTech also serve as living laboratories for research and education. More than 100 trees have been designated for scientific study, forming a natural experimental base and living gene bank.

Yan YANG, Research Assistant Professor of the SUSTech-PKU Institute of Plant and Food Science, shared that her team focuses on lychee flowering regulation, fruit quality improvement, and post-harvest preservation. Using advanced mass spectrometry, they’re building a comprehensive metabolic map of lychees to identify sweeter varieties and pinpoint the best harvest times. By building a complete technological chain from fundamental research to practical applications, they aim to extend the lychee’s shelf life in a greener, smarter way—ensuring the sweet taste of Lingnan can reach far beyond the region.

SUSTech is also integrating its lychee resources into the classroom. At the School of Life Sciences, students take their genetics lessons outdoors each May. During the hands-on portion of the course, they collect leaf samples for genomic DNA extraction and PCR amplification.

Senior lab instructor Yinglan ZHAO explained that it’s a great way to connect what they’re learning in class with the real world, and that it has been well received by students.

Now in its fifth year, SUSTech’s Lychee Cultural Festival has become a summer tradition. From fruit giveaways to interactive games and science outreach, the festival brings everyone together and reflects the University’s warm sense of community.