HISTORY OF BIRD'S NEST

According to many classical Chinese books about health food, swiftlet nest was imported into China from the Southeast Asian region since the T'ang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907). Chinese records on swiftlet nest consist mainly of several categories of historical documentation, including official histories, notes of scholars, travel records, books on dining, books on health food, and books on medical herbs. Swiftlet nest became well known by physicians, connoisseurs, encyclopedic scholars, and traders beginning in the early 17th Century. Consequently, Swiftlet nest developed into a well-known and well-accepted precious health food.