Winter Fishing on Chagan Lake in Songyuan City: Reappearance of the Spectacular Scene of "Pulling Heavily Laden Nets of Fish Out of Frozen Lake"

Reappearance of the spectacular scene of "pulling heavily laden nets of fish out of the frozen lake" in winter fishing on Chagan Lake in Songyuan City [Photo via Office of Cyberspace Affairs of the CPC Qianguo County Committee]

At this time of the year, you can visit the famous fishing and hunting tribes in northern China to experience their millennium-old fishing and hunting culture and see what the "top" of fishing and hunting culture culture is like.

On December 28, reporters of themed media trip on Jilin's ice and snow industry visited the last stop of their journey - Chagan Lake in Songyuan City, Jilin Province. On the same day, the 20th Chagan Lake Ice Fishing and Hunting Culture Tourism Festival kicked off, and a grand ceremony was held on site to worship the God of lake and awaken the sleeping nets for fishing.

The ceremony to worship the God of lake and awaken the sleeping nets for fishing [Photo via Cyberspace Administration of Jilin Province]

Winter fishing on Chagan Lake has began in the Liao and Jin dynasties and the primitive Mongolian fishing methods still remain. Different from ordinary fishing methods, winter fishing on Chagan Lake is a collective project. Everyone chants the work song and pulls the net together to witness the spectacular scene of "pulling heavily laden nets of fish out of the frozen lake".

Chagan Lake "first fish" is auctioned at a high price. [Photo by Zhang Qi]

The first fish caught at this year's festival was auctioned. The eye-catching "first fish" weighed 38 jin (19 kilograms) and was auctioned at the price CNY 2,999,999 (about $471,300).

Winter fishing on Chagan Lake [Photo via Office of Cyberspace Affairs of the CPC Qianguo County Committee]

Song Yajing, a reporter from China Economic Net, had the honor to touch the "first fish", which signaled good luck. "It is the first time for me to witness the amazing ceremony on the lake. Very impressive indeed. Winter fishing on Chagan Lake has done a great job in passing on fishing and hunting culture!"

"Fish Wall" built with bighead carp [Photo by Zhang Qi]

Adopting the concept of sustainable fish farming and fishing, fishers have optimized the mesh size of nets for winter fishing on Chagan Lake. It is usually 6 cun (about 20 centimeters) thick, and fish no larger than this size will not be caught. The ice temperature of Chagan Lake can reach minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius, and the fish caught are frozen by the natural "refrigerator", which makes them remarkably delicious.