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Abstract:: The introduction of cucumber into China should be related to China’s import of Buddhism sincethe Eastern Han Dynasty. There had already been hugua 胡瓜（ literally foreign gourd） in the translation of sutrain the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms and it was renamed huanggua 黄瓜（ literally yellow gourd） during thereign of Sui Yang Emperor. Cucumber had been ignored for a long time because people were influenced by thenegative statement on its property in the Buddhist scriptures. Since the Southern Song Dynasty，planting andeating cucumber has become more and more popular and the main edible variety changed from the early oldcucumbers to the tender ones. There were no signs of loofah before the Song Dynasty in China and its firstrecord was seen in the late Northern Song Dynasty. Loofah，whose alias yuji 鱼际 might be a transliterationof its foreign name，was introduced into China in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty or even before.There were some relevant records about loofah mostly from Fujian and Zhejiang areas in the Song Dynasty.Since then，the most of the records about loofah have also come from the local chronicles of the two provinces.The local chronicles of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces repeatedly mention that loofah was introduced fromFujian. Thus it can be seen that with the rise of foreign transport and trade in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces，loofah was introduced into inland areas by sea in the Song Dynasty.