Yangshuo, China

Fisherman w/ cormorants

Jan.19: (Monday) (Breakfast+Lunch+Dinner) GUILIN TO YANGSHUO BOAT

A 41/2 hour cruise down the Li River, the connecting waterway between Guilin and Yangshuo, is on the agenda for this morning. A thousand years ago a poet wrote of the scenery in this area:“The river forms s green gauze belt, the mountains are like blue jade hairpins.” Perhaps it is not exactly that but you will see some extraordinary limestone peaks, sprays of bamboo along the riverbanks, cormorant fisherman in small boats, and picturesque villages. Upon arrival in Yangshuo take time to scout the street markets and the “western street” markets. In the evening, enjoy the cormorants catching fishes performance on small boats.

By far, this was the most beautiful stretch of China. About 15 minutes into Li River, we started seeing the mountains coming up all around the shores. It was the most incredible sight. Most of us stood on the deck to take in the scenery. The attendants had to call for us for several minutes to come in to have lunch. Lunch was fine, but dealing with salesmen on the rafts selling their wares was more interesting. A couple of them hooked their rafts to the side of the cruise ship and handed to the people on the deck all sorts of stones (I got a small amethyst crystal for USD 3), jade statues, hats, scarves to negotiate an agreeable price. It was really fun.

We arrived in Yangshuo at around 2 PM. As we stepped off the boat, we were surrounded by the street vendors. The street market was about 1/2 mile long and completely covered with merchandise on both sides. Several of us had to go to the post office to ship some gifts home because we ran out of room at this first part of the Southwestern China tour. :-)

After a delicious dinner, we, about 50 BYU China teachers, Ling and Alice, headed for a night ride on small boats. A fisherman stood on the raft with a long pole in his hand pushing the raft along with several cormorants.

According to Gil Azouri:

Using cormorant to fish is an ancient practice in Japan and China. In Japan, cormorant fishermen puts a tethered steel ring around the bird’s neck (to prevent them from swallowing the fish). One fisherman usually handles ten to twelve birds at a time.

In China, the cormorants are more like beloved pets to the fisherman - he would train the bird to catch the fish and release it to him instead of swallowing it.

The fisherman we saw during the boat trip had put a string around the neck of each cormorant. The cormorants dove into the water whenever they saw fish. They picked up the fish, but could not swallow because of the string around their neck. After a few catches, the fisherman pushed them in, grabbed them with his hands, and turned them upside down. We saw 4 or more fish come of their mouth. It was very amazing. After we reached the shore, the fisherman let us hold the cormorant by putting it on our arm. You'll see some pictures below. It was an incredible experience.

The hotel was very nice. As usual, we had breakfast buffet at the hotel. They provided both Chinese and Western breakfasts for us to choose from. We were again in hog heaven. :-) Manana...we'll start dieting. :-)

Below is a slideshow of the cruise down Li River, the beautiful mountains and cormorants catching fishes.