 For some time the Chinese have been looking into innovative ways to increase yields, and in 1987, China established the first mechanized vegetable-seedling production farm in Beijing, known as "plug-seedling production".Eggplant has been produced in such a manner, as have tomato, cucumber, pepper, and melon, but are dependent upon plant rotation for better yield.Chinese varieties of eggplants are characteristically long, slender, cylindrical and less purple than their American and Japanese counterparts with a greenish-purple calyx.