In many legendries about ginseng there are stories about serpent guarding ginseng. It is said that if the serpent eats the fruit of ginseng, it can live forever. At the present age, the man living on digging wild ginseng often runs into the serpent nearby the wild ginseng, seemingly guarding ginseng. For example, Lou Daoju , from Huinan County, Jilin Province, China in1993, was looking after cows in the forest at Ertuowan, when she found a big ginseng under a Korean pine. Just as she was walking towards to watch it over, she glimpsed at a big serpent coiling around the trunk. It seems to guard the ginseng from violating. Lou Daoju et al mustered up courage to drive the serpent away and dug out the ginseng which weighs 0.2 kilos and is sold at the price of ￥220,000.
On the morning of July 29th, 2004 , Ren Zhiqiang ,the general manager and Gong Piguo, the head of the security forces from Dalian Chengyuan Hot Spring Mountain Villa went into the mountain to inspect. Suddenly they found a big serpent as wide as the mouth of the bowl coiling nearby the big ginseng. Meanwhile the serpent is also aware of the appearance of the two uninvited guests and then pounced on them shockedly. Ren Zhiqiang fled away in such a flurry that he was stumbled and rolled down the mountain.
The seven-leaf ginseng has one big and two small fruits with as many as 200 grains, which is unprecedented.
Someone wanted to buy it at the price of ￥50 million, but he was rejected by the person in charge of the mountain villa.
The old man living on digging ginseng said that it may be reasonable that the serpent guards around the ginseng so as to eat ginseng fruit to strengthen its health and ward off illness for it is not legendary for some animals to cure themselves with wild herbs by instinct.
