ABSTRACT
Potatoes were first grown in China sometime between 1573 and 1619 (Zhai, 1980). According to historical records and documentary research, tetraploid cultivated potatoes were introduced from Europe and America to China by various routes at different times. At the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century, they were imported by sea to Beijing, Tianjin and other northern Chinese regions. They also travelled from the Philippines to Taiwan and Fujian, and thus spread to the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It appears that they were brought to Shanxi province from Russia or the Kazakh Khanate (now Kazakhstan) by local businessmen; in addition, they came from Indonesia to Guangdong and Guangxi, and then spread to the regions of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan (Tong and Zhao, 1991; Zhai, 1980).
