Residents visit the lychee park in Guangzhou's Huangpu district to see trees loaded with fruit. [Photo by Zheng Erqi/chinadaily.com.cn]

Xiang Xu, a researcher at the Institute of Fruit Tree Research at Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Science, said Huangpu district attaches great importance to the protection of its old lychee trees and has done a good job in past years.

Tao Feng, deputy director of the Huangpu district bureau of agriculture and rural affairs, said the district now has a lychee planting area of more than 13 square kilometers, with many lychee trees more than 100 years old.

"The district has the largest ancient lychee community in the province," Tao said. The district projects it will harvest more than 7,000 metric tons of lychee fruit this year.