Raintree Nursery has them and provides this information, "This seedling of cultivar 'Qui' Qui was selected near the border of North Korea from the wild near Chang Bai Mountain Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agriculture. We offer Chang Bai because it is very productive and flavorful.and the green fruit has a unique almost heart shape. Its from a cold mountainous region and should be as winter hardy as other hardy kiwis. Needs male arguta for pollination."
I have seen indications that it is hardy to zone 4 at least. So it is hardy to at least -30 degrees.

It is my understanding that you need a male arguta kiwi to polinate the chung bai kiwi. If so and if you do not have one, I would like to offer you a trade of softwood cuttings of a male arguta kiwi for softwood cuttings of a female chung bai. Since hardwood cuttings are hard to root, I will take softwood (this year) cuttings in May or June and root them. If you do the same with your chung bai we can make a trade. I have two anna kiwi females and one arguta kiwi male. I have room for one more vine. My kiwis are to the left of this raised garden.

Plenty of kiwis that edible landscaping sell are zone 4-5 hardy. I grew them here with no problems until the drought hit. Kiwi take a lot of water and even watering them twice a day I could not keep them damp enough. We had cracks 4 feet deep in the ground at the time. Anyway what I was getting at is they went through -20 with no problem but the lack of water killed them almost 2 years into a long drought. I'm not sure about that variety but I do know the cold hardy varieties are very cold hardy. I may grow them again close to the pond where it stays wet during the drought.

No wonder I couldn't find any much information on this kiwi, as it's 'Chang Bia' not 'Chung Bia' as shown listed in my catalogue. The minimum winter temperature here is from -30 to -40 F and I'm sure the vine would sustain severe winter damage or perish altogether unless laid down to the ground and covered over with snow, as I do for some of my grapes. I still might try it as such, though I'll first enquire of the nursery to hear of their claims of its hardiness.

Charlie, your place is very nice and your kiwis are thriving upon your fence. I enjoyed reading your profile information and see that we grow many of the same types of fruit, though of course I'm more limited due to climate. Very nice of you to offer the trade and I'd definitely take you up on it if I could, though unfortunately we'd be unable to pass plant material across the Canadian/American border.

Terrance

I have Chang Bai which I bought from Burnt Ridge last year. It grew well last summer, and I thought it was doing fine this winter. However, on the lower portion of the vine it had developed what looked like bacterial canker that you'd see on a tree. This must have severely weakened its cold hardiness. We have had severe cold this year, at least -3 (which is very cold for us) on three separate occasions. The weakened area died, which, of course, will cause everything above it to die. Luckily, it had developed another long shoot just below this weak area, that appears to be healthy. I'm hoping it will survive and develop into the new main vine. We'll see...

Charlie, I'd be more than happy to send you some soft wood cuttings, but I'm not sure I'll have enough growth to do so - assuming the vine survives.

Revivign an old thread as I'm planning my lot and curious to learn more about the Chung Bai kiwi!

So its a vine, not a tree?
I am in Canada (Manitoba, so zone 3), so curious if these will grow here, since my local nursery has started stocking them!

Hello, I am in zone 4-5 here, Quebec, and my neighbour planted Chung bai (Chang bia) last spring. I am waiting for snow to melt and the plants to start living again to see if her kiwis made it through the winter. We had -34 c. as this year and lots of crazy fluctuations.

Konrad might have some insight on kiwi hardiness in Canada. He's never mentioned growing them as far as I remember.

Konrad and I are personally acquainted and live not too far from one another, though I have not heard him speak of growing kiwi. Some selections can perform well in this region, though only when provided with a well protected microclimate or in the city where the minimum winter temp is somewhat higher. I'm thinking that I might have pretty good conditions to attempt them in my well treed wind protected backyard, though gotta get around to taking the plunge. The lowest temp recorded at my location this past winter was -26 C (-15 F) ... so, pretty much being a breeze for the plants, only wish winters were always that way!

I have yet to hear of anyone successfully growing 'Chang Bia' on the Canadian prairie.

I got a chung bai kiwi last year and it is doing well this year. Did have a little wilt from a cold snap as it was just starting to leaf. Just to let you all know last fall I accidentally broke a part off of it. Luckily I had some rooting hormone and dipped a couple pieces in and stuck them in the ground. The 2 pieces I did have a little green leaflets sticking out with luck I should have a grand total of 3 female plants.