Cormorant Fishing in Zhou Zhuang 周庄

Boatload of Cormorants in Zhou Zhuang 周庄

Boatload of Cormorants in Zhou Zhuang 周庄

I remember towards the end of another China trip, I was in the beautiful town of Yangshuo in Guangxi province, which incidentally also features a lot of water. One of the attractions in the town was cormorant fishing. This is a type of fishing where fishermen use these birds to catch fish. A ring is placed around their neck so that they don’t swallow the larger ones. They have to let them eat of they refuse to work. I was surprised to see a boat with a lot of these birds in Zhou Zhuang.

Riverside Scene in Zhou Zhuang 周庄

Riverside Scene in Zhou Zhuang 周庄

It does make sense that they also have it here. After all, the entire village of Zhou Zhuang is surrounded by water. The main food source has to be there. I didn’t get to see the birds in action though but I’m sure they work exactly the same way. Now that I have seen these birds, I now glad I didn’t have any of those locally caught fish I passed by.

[xmlgm {http://www.worldwanderings.net/kml/ZhouZhuang.kmz} zoom=19]