People give crickets special food to enhance their fighting capabilities for seasonal competitions that are popular in Ningyang, Shandong province. CHINA DAILY

"Nowadays, we can afford these mushrooms. If we go to the food market in Yunnan, we'll see various mushrooms. A feast for our taste buds," says Dong, who now lives in Beijing.

For Yuan Jin, xiaoshu comes with a special fragrance－a mix of gardenia and jasmine. The two flowers are found in eastern and southern parts of the country and quickly go into full bloom after Minor Heat.

Yuan lives in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, and works at a local college. She says when she was a little girl, her mother bought gardenia from street vendors for her as a fashion accessory and hooked the buds onto her hair clips.

Flower vendors are not seen on the streets anymore. But the two flowers can be found in gardens and in the balconies at people's homes. Yuan has planted several pots of gardenia. She says in the old times, young women in Suzhou often put a basket of gardenia and jasmine on their beds to sleep amid the refreshing fragrance.

The tradition of using these flowers as perfume and fashion accessories during xiaoshu can be traced back hundreds of years, she adds.

For many people, xiaoshu is also a time to place their clothes, quilts and beddings out in the sun to prevent mildew and humidity. In ancient times, rich families also put out their collection of books, calligraphy works and paintings under the sun, following the legend that a dragon would bathe its scales in the river.