What is Agarwood?
What is the difference between the agarwood we often hear and the earth agarwood? What is Agarwood?
In fact, agarwood is a wood block with resin produced by the agarwood tree. These wood blocks with resin contain unique fragrance and medicinal properties, so they will be incorporated into Chinese herbal medicines and fragrance-making materials. The formation of these resins is not easy. After the agarwood trees are damaged by natural disasters, insects or man-made damage, the trees will secrete a unique resin to form at the injured location to protect the tree itself. Since Agarwood itself is tasteless, traditional Shannon will make some scars on the tree to make it fragrant. Shannon will not harm the life of trees, and the time to collect agarwood is generally five years or more after the scars are made. Therefore, trees will not be threatened to their lives due to man-made injuries. However, due to the upsurge in the sale of agarwood in the Mainland in the past ten years, many illegal immigrants came to Hong Kong to collect agarwood in a short period of time. They did not hesitate to chop them down, and even cut down and steal the agarwood without incense, resulting in a large amount of wild soil. After the death of agarwood, relevant conservationists discovered that these crazy felling practices of agarwood have spread all over Lantau Island, outlying islands, and the New Territories! These crazy and short-sighted felling behaviors will make wild agarwood extinct and make people in the world lose the opportunity to taste agarwood. At present, the only way to conserve wild agarwood is to use planting agarwood instead of growing agarwood. Only in this way can the traditional incense culture continue and ensure the biodiversity of the wild ecology.



The relationship between Agarwood and Hong Kong:

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The origin of Hong Kong place names is closely related to Agarwood. In ancient times, the Dongguan generation belonging to Hong Kong was famous for artificially planting Agarwood. According to the Song Dynasty’s records: “The past fragrances were all born in heaven. Fortunately, Dongguan used manpower to make up for it... Also." And the agarwood, which "replenishes it with manpower," was originally handed over and transplanted to Guangguan, which is especially suitable for Wantu.

The main reasons for the prosperity of Wanxiang are the geographical environment. The so-called "Southern Guangdong is called the country of fragrant incense... Yue Wan is like oranges and citrus fruits, and it is unknown that it is suitable for Wanxiang." The second is planting technology. "Scent is precious in time", I know that the spring climate is humid, and the harvested Wanxiang fragrance is full of moisture; the summer climate is hot, and the harvested spices are drier; in autumn and winter, the climate becomes cooler, the essence is restrained, and the aroma is the purest.

Tsim Sha Tau (now Sha Tsim Tsui) was also called "Xiang Bu Tou", the place where Guanxiang was distributed and transshipped, and Shek Pai Wan (now Aberdeen) was also called "Hong Kong"-from which the place name of Hong Kong came from.

It can be seen that Hong Kong is named Hong Kong because Hong Kong has been a port for agarwood trafficking since the Song Dynasty. Hundreds of years ago, villagers in many ancient villages in Hong Kong also used Agarwood as the feng shui tree for their villages. It can be seen that Agarwood is an indispensable part of Hong Kong's local culture.

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In the hot speculation environment, wild agarwood is no longer an ordinary fragrant medicine. The online speculation and sale of illegally felled Hong Kong wild agarwood on the mainland has not only distort the basic value of traditional incense culture, it can be said to be lawless.

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Many mainland WeChat public accounts frantically promote the investment value of wild agarwood and exaggerate its medicinal value. There are also many unscrupulous businessmen engaged in the sale of illegally felled Hong Kong wild agarwood in those QQ incense road groups. They told me more frankly that many people just slash with the mountains and take them everywhere. I realize that there are Hong Kong Xiangyou in the QQ group. He often buys illegally felled wild Agarwood from Hong Kong from illegal merchants in the Mainland. Because wild Agarwood is almost extinct, it is necessary to buy more stocks as soon as possible. Agarwood has become an investment tool like gold.

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You only need to search for wild agarwood from Hong Kong on Taobao, and you will be able to find a few pages of wild agarwood from Hong Kong for sale. Some agarwood sellers may know that the authorities are cracking down on the sale of illegally felled wild agarwood in Hong Kong. They will be able to hide from the sky by claiming that it is produced elsewhere. Only by banning the sale of wild agarwood products from the source can the crazy tree cutting be stopped.

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Lovers of traditional fragrance art know how to cherish and respect everything that nature has given us. I don't want to see the wild Agarwood go extinct one day. Agarwood is one of the important spices in traditional incense culture, but there are still various incense recipes that do not require agarwood. Facing the threat of extinction, agarwood can be replaced by other fragrant medicines for sustainable development.

In addition, one of the methods for sustainable development and protection of ecological diversity is to plant agarwood instead of wild agarwood. As long as we support the industrial development and technological improvement of the cultivation of Aquilaria, the wild agarwood can be completely banned.

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In order to prevent illegally felled wild Agarwood in Hong Kong from continuing to flow into the market in any form, immediately legislatively banned the sale of wild Agarwood resin and its products.

More references:

The relationship between Agarwood and Hong Kong by the Association for Ecological and Cultural Conservation of Agarwood
http://incensetrees.wix.com/incensetrees#!about1/c21mk

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