Vegetable rice. [File photo]

Tasting Nanjing vegetable rice

People in Nanjing used to take Minor Cold quite seriously, and they still keep a custom of eating vegetable rice to celebrate this solar term. The rice is steamed with aijiaohuang (a kind of green vegetable), sausage and salted duck that are all the specialties in Nanjing.

Minor Cold is also the busiest time for doctors and pharmacies of traditional Chinese medicine. Many people need them to prepare new medicines, which will be consumed before the Lunar New Year.