Tourists take photos at the Fuyuan Fish Culture Experience Hall. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Heyao
Harbin, March 9 (Xinhua) -- The huge "living fossil" Dashi fish swims in a large pool, and the vivid fish specimens seem to "tell" the history of Fuyuan's rise because of fish... Walking into the Fuyuan Fish Culture Experience Hall in Heilongjiang Province, it is as if you are in a dreamy freshwater fish world, and tourists who come to watch it take out their mobile phones to take photos from time to time.
Fuyuan, formerly known as "Yiliga", Hezhe means "golden fish beach", because it is located in the easternmost part of China's land, known as the "East Pole of China". The Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers converge here, providing unique natural conditions for the survival and reproduction of freshwater fish.
Meng Lingling, head of the Fuyuan Fish Culture Experience Center, said that the experience hall was completed and opened in 2017, showing Fuyuan's rich fishery resources and the fishing and hunting culture of the Hezhe ethnic group in various forms such as fish objects and specimens.
This is a fish specimen exhibited at the Fuyuan Fish Culture Experience Center. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Heyao
Fuyuan fish culture has a long history, the ancestors of the Hezhe people living here have long mastered the craft of making fish skin clothes, and their lifestyles and folk customs have gradually formed unique traditions and have been passed down to this day.
Wang Guirong is a representative inheritor of Heilongjiang's provincial intangible cultural heritage and is proficient in the production of various fish skin artworks. Fishskin paintings, fishskin clothes, fishskin ornaments... In her hands, the skins of the fish are like new life, "alive" in a new form.
"I grew up by the river and know a lot about all kinds of fish." Wang Guirong is passionate about fish skin art creation and turns his hobby into his profession.
Wang Guirong is creating fish skin artwork. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Heyao
Over the years, Wang Guirong has continuously improved his fish skin artwork creation skills and taught this craft to more intangible cultural heritage enthusiasts. Li Wei, director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center of the Fuyuan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism, said that many young people are now very interested in fishskin artworks and have learned from Wang Guirong, and have also broadened the channels for increasing income for themselves.
There is one place in Fuyuan that is always particularly lively, that is, the "East Pole Fish Market". On both sides of the more than 100-meter-long street, fish sellers have been busy early in the morning, and "straight" frozen fish are upside down in the snow waiting for customers to choose. "Three flowers, five luo eighteen seeds", a variety of well-known freshwater fish are available here.
"Have friends ever seen fifty or sixty pounds of big fish heads?" Old and heavy, can eat for a week! "At the fish market, a merchant is selling fish live. With the development of the short video industry, more and more merchants choose to expand their sales channels by live streaming with goods. With just one click to place an order, diners across the country can taste the taste from the easternmost tip of China.
Fish is a gift from nature to Fuyuan, fuyuan people "live on fish", but also through artificial breeding, stocking and other measures, to achieve sustainable development of fishery economy.
This is the salmon fry hatched in Fuyuan City. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Heyao
The reporter saw in Fuyuan City Sturgeon Breeding and Breeding Co., Ltd. that countless salmon fry about 3 centimeters long were swimming in the nursery pond. "800,000 salmon fry thrive under the meticulous care of the staff, and after a period of time, the fry are released." The company's deputy manager Wan Yuan introduced.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Fuyuan Municipal Agriculture and Rural Bureau, in order to protect fishery resources, since the 1980s, Fuyuan has artificially hatched fish fry every year, released them into the Heilongjiang and Ussuri rivers, conserves fishery resources, and effectively promotes the improvement of local fishery ecology.