Fishing

This morning, when I went downstairs for breakfast, Lai Si's husband was gutting and cleaning fish in the kitchen. These fish had just been caught at the Yellow Waters on the other side of the city in the country area. They both did the motion of catching fish with a fishing pole. I told them I also liked to fish, and right then, Lai Si decided to call her son and tell him we should meet at the Yellow waters to spend the day fishing, but they were already there and so we left an hour later. The fish in the kitchen was actually caught that morning by Lai Si's son.

We drove through the city, past many deserted houses, over the "Yellow Water River" (the second largest river in China) and into the country side. Our driver honked for some men to open the gate that led into some brush and bamboo, so I could tell there was definitely water nearby, but that is not where we went first.

We passed these buildings made out to look like rock caves, but they were not being used by anyone for anything. On the side of some of the buildings, a fake tree would be carved into the side. The tree I saw near the road, as we when past, was made to look very old and real. It was actually so realistic, it's branches were being held up, as if it were meant to seem very old. I had a lot of questions, but could not ask anything to Lai Si. Then, without going straight to the lake, we came to a large building. It was also deserted with it's widows broken and the door wide open. While we were getting out of the car to go look inside, I was very puzzled as to why we would go in. When we did, I looked around bewildered at the scene. It was a giant greenhouse. There were playgrounds made out of logs and bamboo. The ground was covered with growing vines that grew on the walls and the ceiling and the rocks they had placed inside. It looked like a playground for gorilla's, but almost as if it were never used, just made, then was left alone. There were many different plants growing. Most of the plants were different kinds of vines that had been growing around the area for years and had finally taken over the whole building.

The greenhouse had another area in the back. We ducked our heads as we went through the broken door and under the broken glass. There was a very large hall way that must have been a hundred feet long and on the sides were fields of vines growing on the ground under the beautiful shining ceiling. I climbed up one of the little houses into a tiny little hut, then went back down on the other side. It was beautiful in there. It almost reminded me of what I thought heaven would look like. I thought of it as a work place for movie making. Through the building was a small stream that was still running and was beautifully preserved with a brick ditch that led the stream in a snake shape. There were little bridges that went over onto the other side to where the back of vine fields were. By the exit of the greenhouse were broken down fish tanks, as if someone had been putting their fish there for a while after fishing in the yellow waters and brought them here to cut and clean them. Many of the tanks were still full of water. In one of them, a large insect struggled to get out. It looked like a dangerous insect and I did not dare touch it without my equipment. I was going to help it out, but got this feeling to just walk away, and so, that's what I did.

We got back into the car. I had many questions about what I had just seen, but knew I wouldn't get a clear answer anyway. We drove further into the bushes and bamboo. we came to another large building with no windows or furniture inside, except for one room on the bottom left. A man lived there, but it didn't seem like an uncomfortable place to make a home. Around the building, was a lot of bamboo and a very beautiful traditionally made brick fence which surrounded the small lake where we would spend the rest of our day fishing. We met the rest of the family on the side of the lake. The man that lived in the building near by had many dogs and they had followed us seeing if we would give them some food. We sat down and talked for a while. Lai Si's son's friend had gotten his fish hook stuck in the branches above him and he wasn't able to get it down for about 25 minutes.

There was a wonderful breeze that day and I enjoyed sitting and watching them take a small fish every once in a while out of the water. They had been fishing all day to eat with their dinner tonight and worked hard to catch every single fish. After about an hour, Lai Si's son went and bought us lunch. There was chicken feet, pepper and beef dish, egg, potatoes, beef, root and garlic stew and some spicy noodles with bread. The bread and stew was all I ate. After everyone ate a chicken foot, they threw the extra meet and bones to the dogs.

As we were finishing our lunch, the man who lived in the large building by the lake, had caught a very large fish that must have been a foot and a half long. He stuck it on a large stick while still alive. Immediately, he took it back to his house to gut and clean it. Here, they don't wait for it to die before they gut it like I had learned to do. Me, Lai Si and her husband watched him as he killed the beast with his knife. He cut it open from the bottom, but the fish was still squirming with all it's might. he stuck his had in the large animal and even when the insides of the fish were falling out of its body, it still squirmed around until the man pulled with all his might and, in a strange way, pulled out the insides all together and killed the creature immediately. One of the young puppy's the man had owned carried off the bladder to eat. The man cleaned the inside. After he was done spraying the fish with large amounts of water from his hose, he laid it on it's side, took his knife, and from the down up, made clean slits into the fish.

After making the slits, he had gotten some sacks from his room, which were filled full of salt, seeds and seasonings. He filled these slits with the seeds, then he seasoned the fish and after, he had spread salt all over the animal. His friend stuck a hook in the mouth out through the gills and they both walked up the the top of the large building to let the fish soak in the sun for the day and hang. They would either sell it or cook it that night.

Seeing something like this was very interesting. It was common to do in this area of China and now, just like a Chinese man or woman I know how to fish like they do, cut the fish like they do, and how to preserve it in a very traditional way.

We had gone to meet some friends, have some tea and say hello. We got home at about 5:30 that evening. I collected some beautiful plants near a river next to the lake and will keep those as my souvenir from another great experience.