OREANDA-NEWS. April 09, 2012. The 2nd Anhui Animal Husbandry Exhibition was held on Sunday in Hefei, capital city of Anhui province.

The event was such a real eye-opener for visitors that they could see a lot of interesting exhibits such as rare swan meat, eggs hatched by hens feeding on herbal medicine and an alligator snapper capable of carrying a 100-kg load.

Swan meat is believed to be almost exclusively enjoyed by royals, however, the exhibition made it available by common people, as a Wuhu-based swan raising firm put not only swan flesh but eggs on show.

The packaged meat with the net weight of 1.2 kilograms each was priced at 680 yuan (USD 108), which seemed to be less affordable than swan eggs sold for 40 yuan each. These eggs, about the size of goose eggs, could be cooked in many ways like steaming, boiling and frying, a staff member said.

The swan eggs were surprisingly cheaper than a type of hen eggs sold by an exhibitor from Fuyang. Priced at 150 yuan each, the hen eggs drew much attention from visitors. As the exhibitor claimed, hens were fed on 32 varieties of herbal medicine, including Chinese caterpillar fungus and  ginseng.

"We plan to open exclusive stores in Hefei later this year," he said, adding that expensive though it was, the egg sold well, for it was high-end and supplied to regular customers.

At the exhibition, a tortoise-like animal remained safe and sound when it bore a man weighing roughly 90 kilograms on its back. "It is not an ordinary tortoise. It's an alligator snapper, which can carry a maximum load of 100 kilograms," a staff member said.