Villagers in Zisiqiao Village, Xinshi Town, Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, are engaged in snake breeding, and there are more than 3 million snakes perched in the village at the most, and many people call this place "China's first snake village".
Zisiqiao Village, Xinshi Town, Deqing County, Zhejiang Province, the whole village area is only 1 square kilometer, since the 1980s, the villagers here have been raising snakes for the industry, and at most more than 3 million snakes are inhabited, hundreds of thousands of which are highly venomous snakes like pit viper cobras.
Today, this small village in Jiangnan still has 1/3 of the villagers raising snakes, producing more than 1 million snakes every year. Many villagers have made their fortunes by raising snakes. Zisiqiao Village has long been the largest medicinal snake breeding base in the country. In the middle of summer, when the breeding of small snakes is at its peak, the author walked into the "First Snake Village in China" to explore the life of the villagers who "dance with snakes".
Photography & Writing/ Wu Jianxun Editing / Wang Shiwei
Producer/Tencent News
China's First Snake Village: The Snake King And the God of Death Pass by The poisoner earns thousands of yuan a day
Snake King Yang Hongchang:
"Dancing with the Snake" for 40 years, rubbing shoulders with the god of death
Yang Hongchang, 68, was one of the earliest snake keepers in the village, raising nearly 200,000 snakes alone at the most, and locals called him the "snake king." Today, Yang Hongchang runs a company specializing in snake breeding, breeding, snake product development and deep processing.
In the 1970s, Zisiqiao Village was a well-known poor village within a radius of ten miles. Yang Hongchang, a young man, makes a living by fishing and farming in the village, and his life is tight. At the age of 18, Yang Hongchang suffered from ankylosing spondylitis, which still has the sequelae of hunchback. In order to treat the disease, Yang Hongchang sought medical treatment everywhere and spent all his savings, but his body did not improve.
Several tourists from Hangzhou rushed to Yang Hongchang's snake farm to visit.
At the end of the road, an old Chinese medicine doctor in Shanghai gave him a trick: "Your disease is very expensive to cure, there are snakes in your hometown of Moganshan, or you go home and grab some snakes to drink and drink." In fact, as early as 400 years ago, the "Compendium of Materia Medica" recorded the medicinal effects of 17 species of snakes in China. With the idea of trying it out, Yang Hongchang went up to the mountain to catch a snake and soak it in wine after returning home. After drinking for a few years, I don't know if the snake wine really played a role, and my waist didn't hurt. Yang Hongchang thought to himself that it was not a long-term solution to catch snakes in the wild, so he had the idea of artificial snake breeding.
Yang Hongchang is using the snake bile of a silver ring snake to treat a skin disease to a guest.
Yang Hongchang chose one of the most common red chain snakes in the local area as a breeding snake. In the first year of raising snakes, he bought 4,000 snake eggs, but in the end, only 1,000 small snakes hatched, losing more than 10,000 yuan. You know, at that time, a family could not use ten thousand yuan for a whole year's living expenses. He was ill, his children were small, and his business was at a loss, and Yang Hongchang suddenly fell into the abyss. The villagers also advised him that the snake was wild and that the family could not keep it well.
But Yang Hongchang did not accept defeat, the next year, he learned a lesson, consulted experts, tried water weeds, cartons, sand and other materials, Yang Hongchang found that the use of foam boxes to simulate the living environment of snakes in the cave is the most suitable, this time he purchased 40,000 snake eggs, the result hatched more than 37,000 small snakes, each sold to 3.8 yuan, suddenly earned more than 100,000 yuan. Yang Hongchang became the richest man in the village.
Under the leadership of Yang Hongchang, the villagers began to raise snakes. At its peak, more than 85% of the villagers raised snakes, and more than 3 million snakes were farmed a year.
Now, in addition to the black snake and the red chain snake, Yang Hongchang has mastered dozens of artificial breeding techniques for snakes. In particular, the hatching rate of the red chain snake has increased to more than 80%. It was Yang Hongchang's snake incubation technology that made Zisiqiao Village suddenly become the first snake village famous in the country. It should be known that 70% of the global snake breeding industry comes from China, and in China, there are only more than 800 people in Zisiqiao Village, accounting for nearly 30%.
Raising snakes, it is inevitable that it will be bitten by snakes, Yang Hongchang said, he himself can not remember how many times he has been bitten, when he first started raising snakes, he had to be bitten hundreds of times a day, but it was still scary to be bitten by non-venomous snakes. The closest time to death was when squeezing snake venom for a five-step snake, its teeth would turn at three hundred and sixty degrees, and although it grabbed the head, it still did not pay attention to letting one tooth bite on the finger. The five-step snake is extremely poisonous, and if it is not done well, it will kill you. Yang Hongchang quickly used a knife to cut two openings in his hand to bleed, rushed with water, and then called a car to send it to Hangzhou Hospital to beat the serum. Yang Hongchang, who has raised snakes all his life, still has palpitations in his heart when he thinks back.
Poisoner Qian Wusong:
Taking poison with bare hands is on the verge of life and death, earning thousands of yuan a day
In Zisiqiao, the most profitable thing is to raise poisonous snakes, because poisonous snakes can extract snake venom. Snake venom is known as soft gold, and lyophilized powder can be sold for hundreds of yuan per gram. However, it is not easy to take poison from the mouth of a giant poisonous snake. In the local area, poisoning is perhaps the most dangerous profession. Mr. Qian, 60, has been in this highly dangerous profession since 1985, and Mr. Qian said there were fewer than a hundred drug takers like him in China.
The most common venomous snake raised by local villagers is the belly snake, which is generally kept in the wild snake pond. These snakes take snake venom at intervals of one or two decades at a time. Before taking the snake venom, Qian Wusong would change into rain boots and enter the snake pond alone to catch the snake. There are at least two or three thousand snakes in a pond of snakes. Qian Wusong used a dustpan to put the snake into the bag, and then used long tweezers to pick up the snake that was floating on the ground and in the grass.
Qian Wusong's action of taking snake venom was already very skilled. He grabbed the snake's head with his bare hands, and then quickly brought the snake's teeth close to the inner wall of a small measuring cup, and squeezed the poisonous glands on both sides of the snake's head with two fingers, only to see a yellow liquid spurt out from the middle of the teeth, "This is snake venom, known as 'liquid gold'." Old Qian kept repeating this action, and the beads of sweat had already seeped through his forehead. Old Qian did not dare to be sloppy every time, he said, the most taboo thing for poison takers is to drink, because if you are a little careless, you may be bitten by a snake.
In the blink of an eye, the measuring cup in front of the old money was already filled with venom. Old Qian hurriedly poured the snake venom into a large plastic bottle and then put it in the refrigerator to freeze it.
Old Money said that snake venom would deteriorate if it was not refrigerated. Snake venom is specially purchased by pharmaceutical manufacturers. Venom is sold for twenty or thirty yuan a gram, and freeze-dried powder is sold for more than one hundred yuan a gram. It is reported that the venom value of venomous snakes is very high, and it can be made into serum, thrombolytic agents, etc. for related clinical treatment.
Old Qian is a Tongxiang native next door, and it is only ten minutes away from his home to Zisiqiao Village. When he was young, he also farmed snakes, but later did not manage well. I heard that there are people in Yiwu who specialize in extracting snake venom, which is very profitable. Old Qian also went to Yiwu to see it, but people were reluctant to teach it. There was no way, the old money had to go home and grope for himself. At first, I was bitten by a snake a few times, but later I got more and became skilled, and I have never been bitten by a snake in recent years. Now, he is on the brink of life and death every day, extracting venom from the mouths of thousands of poisonous snakes with his bare hands. Earn thousands of dollars a day.
Lao Qian said: "In the early years, many villagers in Zisiqiao embarked on the road to prosperity early by selling snake venom. ”
Female college student Yang Xiaoxia:
Sleep with tens of thousands of snakes every night
At 4 a.m., Yang Xiaoxia, a young snake keeper, got up early and began to be busy, and she had not slept well for more than half a month. These days, the red chain snakes she breeds are laying eggs, and every 2 hours, she and her husband Xiaosun have to take turns to remove the snake eggs to ensure that they are safe. Xiao Yang told reporters that snakes in the middle of the night to the morning is the peak period of egg laying, if not picked up in time, one is afraid of being eaten by snakes, the other is high temperature days, afraid of long-term exposure and dehydration will affect hatching.
The large snake room was dimly lit, the windows were covered with thick black cloth, the floor was covered with a thick layer of fine sand, and hundreds of mesh bags were placed next to each other on the sand. Several snakes are coiled in each mesh bag, and the mouth of the bag is tied tightly with a rope to prevent the snake from escaping. Xiao Yang half squatted down, gently untied the rope, put his hand into the bag, and took out the snake eggs that had just been laid. Summer is the peak of snake spawning, and on this day, the snakes raised by Xiao Yang lay more than 5,000 eggs. Xiao Yang told reporters that there are almost 10,000 red chain snakes raised here.
In the next room, more than a dozen foam boxes are neatly stacked. Xiao Yang lifted a lid, which was also tiled with fine sand, and Xiao Yang lined up the snake eggs neatly and then covered them with fine sand. If nothing else, after 8 weeks, small snakes can hatch.
Zisiqiao Village, where Xiao Yang is located, is located in the north of Zhejiang, and the average annual temperature remains at about 20 degrees all year round. The warm and humid climate makes it an ideal home for many snakes. At its peak, more than 85 percent of the village's households are keeping snakes. His father lived by raising snakes, and Xiao Yang had been dealing with snakes since he was a child. When she was 8 years old, she followed her father to the snake shed to collect snake eggs. After graduating from Zhejiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Xiao Yang became more aware of the importance of developing the medicinal value of snakes. Xiao Yang said that in fact, there is nothing terrible about raising snakes, and after a long time, you will feel that they are like your own children.
Xiao Yang was shading the belly snake pool.
Four years ago, Xiao Yang and her husband Xiao Sun officially took over from their father and began to raise snakes. Hatching the red-chained fetal snake is only busy for three or four months a year. In the village, there is no problem for the general snake farmer to earn more than 100,000 yuan per year. But Xiao Yang told reporters that snake breeding will also face market risks, and if it is not good, it will also lose money. For example, in 2017, when the price of the female snake was very high, it was 120 yuan per catty, but the price of the small snake was sold to less than 5 yuan, and many farmers lost money. Today, Xiao Yang and her husband have raised almost 10,000 red chain snakes and 20,000 belly snakes.
Xiao Yang's son was never afraid of snakes.
In recent years, the snake breeding industry in Zisiqiao Village has also slowly changed. There are fewer snake owners, and many young people have returned to their old professions and made silk scarves. Xiao Yang and her husband Xiao Sun are both "post-85s" and are the youngest snake keepers in Zisiqiao Village.
"If you just catch the snake and cut the snake into medicine after breeding it, there is no future for this industry." Xiao Yang did not agree much with the previous breeding methods. She began experimenting with artificial breeding of more types of snakes, from snake egg hatching to small snake breeding to artificial breeding.
For the next generation of snake villages like Xiao Yang, with technological progress and industrial deepening, what a different way will snake villages come.