This ginseng root is more than 600 years old. It takes pride of place in the display window of the Tung Fung Hung medical hall at Ngee Ann City. Plucked from the Chang-pai mountains in Jilin province, northern China, it is now a hot subject of discussion in ginseng -trade circles. Mr Ng Tee Kang, who heads Chinese herbal wholesalers Weng Huat Loong, described the ginseng root as a rarity. He noted that the root's lifespan of 600 years had been verified by the Jilin provincial authorities, which provided a certificate confirming its authenticity.
The Jilin authorities had ordered a 10-year watch over the root, found in the wilds of the Chang-pai mountains. They ordered a stockade of bamboo piles to be erected around the root for protection. The root was dug up last September and dried to its present weight of 93 g. In December, the authorities sold it to the Hongkong-based 38-outlet Tung Fung Hung medical-halls group at a price which shop manager Juley Chan declined to disclose. She said the hall has since received an offer of $300,000 from a Hongkong millionaire for the root. But company managing director Louis Lo is not selling, unless "someone topped the offer substantially", she added.
If the offer of $300,000 is taken as a basis, the ginseng root has already set a price record. The price works out to be $3,225 a gram. This compares with the retail market price of wild Jiling ginseng at $880 a gram or $33,000 a tael. Ms Chan said that the last record price paid for Jilin ginseng sold by her group was $160,000. It was for a 50-g root, sold to Mr Stanley Ho, the Macau "casino king", a few months ago.
Mr Lim Chong Hung, general manager of the Eu Yan Sang Medical Hall in South Bridge Road, thought that the $300,000 offer was too high. Eu Yan Sang sells its wild Jilin ginseng for $10,000 a tael or $267 a gram. But Weng Huat Loong's Mr Ng disagreed. ""Even if you were to hand $500,000 to me today, and ask me to buy a similar ginseng root, I would not be abblee to oblige because I just could not get such a rare one.''
- BY : Sit Yin Fong
- SOURCE : Singapore Straits Times1995.04.21
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