Excerpt from the February 2022 issue of Car Road Trip magazine
Written and photographed by Wang Yumeng
In order to catch a glimpse of the grand winter fishing of Chagan Lake, we set off from Songyuan City, which is more than 50 kilometers away from Chagan Lake, accompanied by chaoyang. Several large characters span the wetlands beside the road, writing about the past and future here: green waters and green mountains, ice and snow are all golden mountains and silver mountains.
It is more than 30 degrees Celsius below zero, and the ice surface is half a meter thick. Walking on the surface of Chagan Lake, which has been completely frozen, the warm sun is particularly dazzling. On the surface of the 500-square-kilometer completely frozen lake, more than 200 fishermen can produce tens of thousands of pounds of fish in one net through artificial ice chiseling, horse-drawn winchs, and netting under the ice.
Before the winter fishing begins, the ceremony of "offering the lake and waking up the net" is indispensable. Its main purpose is twofold, one is to hope that all living beings will be blessed and long, and the other is to hope that winter fishing can be carried out smoothly. With the gradual folklorization of the ritual of "offering to the lake and waking up the net", a magical winter fishing custom was formed, which was passed down from generation to generation in Chagan Lake. There are mainly the following procedures: lamas chanting, lamas wearing masks and dancing the Chama dance around the sacred fire in a clockwise direction; clan leaders chanting the words of the lake; "fish handle head" chanting the words of the net; clan leaders, lamas, "fish handle heads", etc. throw offerings through the ice cave into the lake water, while Mongolian youth dance the Andai dance outside the field; and people of high moral standing reward the fishermen with zhuangxing wine.
The large net during winter fishing consists of 96 small nets with a total length of 2000 meters. The net is driven by an 11-meter-long piercing rod and flows into the water, and the fishermen of the "waterline" skillfully guide the net from the upper ice eye to the lower ice eye, and finally let the large net unfold under the ice, enclosing all the square kilometers of water. Reaching the outlet, the huge fishing net changed from an "empty" net to a "real" net. In fact, it is "red", in the morning, it begins to net, commonly known as "red net at the head of the sun", which means a good harvest. The net is drawn by a horse-drawn winch. Four muscular horses pulled the winch and spun around, the nets were slowly pulled out of the water, and thousands of fresh fish danced hot on the glacial lake.
Walking into the fishing village on the shore of Chagan Lake, the scenes everywhere are related to fishing. Fishing nets are basking in the courtyards, roofs, and walls, and fishing gear is also placed on the firewood stacks, as if even the air is full of a strong smell of fish. Here, every household hangs a beautiful fish lamp; the pattern on the children's school bag and the window flowers cut during the New Year are all themed "fish"; the apron of the restaurant chef is also woven with the "pisces" pattern.
What is more interesting is that the couplets posted by every household during the New Year are also full of strong fishing and hunting culture. For example, "people rejoice in horses and call Qi Dong to catch the sun and the sun is full of red sources of wealth", and the horizontal batch is "the net sees the treasure"; "the silver hammer chisels open the road to get rich, and the big digging is dragged into the door of happiness"; the horizontal batch is "getting rich in the water"...
Driving directions: Changchun City (Yatai Avenue, G12 Hunwu Expressway) - 170 km - Songyuan City (G12 Hunwu Expressway, Chagan Lake Road) - 50 km - Chagan Lake
Mileage: About 220 km one way