Travel to Sansha: Out to Sea

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Sansha is an important town along the coast of Fujian Province, bordering the Mindong Fishing Ground, one of the country's five major fishing grounds. The Sansha Fishery Company, Mindong Fishing Ground Command, Mindong Vessel Supervision Station, and Sansha Taiwan Compatriot Reception Station are all located here. It serves as a distribution center for goods from northern and southern Fujian and a window for opening up to the outside world.

Guzhen Port, located at the northeast corner of Sansha Town, is a famous deep-water harbor. With abundant marine products and these unique advantages, most Sansha locals engage in offshore fishing, seaweed (laver) cultivation, kelp cultivation, and marine fish farming. This article mainly introduces three types of work at sea: Venice on the Sea, trawl fishing, and pulling ground cages.

Venice on the Sea is a "town" on the water, situated in the waters of Xiaoguzhen in Sansha Town, locally known as "fish rafts." Boarding a boat from Xiaoguzhen Pier takes about 20 minutes to reach. It consists of hundreds of thousands of net cages and hundreds of small wooden houses forming a sea of fish rafts, densely dotting the sea surface in a spectacular scene. This is a large-scale farming base and also a small maritime community, where fishermen live and eat on the sea, spending most of the year there.

Early in the morning, we arrived at Xiaoguzhen Pier. Marine products were being loaded ashore for transport to other places. Before boarding, we took a close-up shot—this is the type of ferry we took.

Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the fish rafts. With good weather and good mood, we gave a thumbs-up to this sky, this water, and this time.

The fish rafts are built with wooden planks, supported underneath by foam materials to keep them afloat. They are arranged in an orderly and uniform manner, and walking on them feels like walking on flat ground, though caution is still needed. Houses are built on the fish rafts, and marine products are cultivated beneath them. The hardworking and kind fishermen live on the rafts, rising with the sun and resting with its setting.

After negotiating with the fish raft owner, we paid to fish from his raft's net cage. We caught a red drum fish (Honggu fish), weighing over a catty, experiencing the thrill and excitement of reeling in a fish.

The fishermen's daily work includes inspecting, checking, and feeding the fish in the net cages. Although conditions are simple here, it embodies the purest fisherman life, completely different from the pastoral life we've seen before—definitely an unforgettable travel experience.

Boarding a boat from Sansha Dongbi Pier, it takes about 40 minutes to reach the destination waters. Each trawl lasts about 40 minutes, and all seafood caught belongs to the tourists. You can bring your own dry provisions or have the seafood you catch processed. The boat has equipment for tourists to cook their "spoils." Note that there is no toilet on the fishing boat, so tourists should take care of their needs before boarding; bring seasickness medication and take it before boarding.

During the voyage, before reaching the destination waters, tourists enjoy the beautiful scenery around. The hustle and bustle of city life and work pressure vanish at this moment. Slowly savor the slow pace of life, stop to look, stop to think—yes, this is the life I need, this freedom, this purified soul.

Hauling the net—let's see what we'll get. Besides the "spoils" we obtain, the act of hauling itself is a joyful and productive labor. Under the guidance of the fisherman instructor, we struggled with it for 40 minutes and finally got a bountiful "haul."

Tourists sort and place the "spoils." Seafood caught by oneself must be the most delicious. We gain both fun and food.

The shrimp caught are rich in calcium, sweet to eat, and highly nutritious. Do you like fresh seafood?

The caught longtou fish (dragonhead fish) tastes like jelly, very sweet, with soft meat, and even the bones can be chewed up.

The caught mantis shrimp and swimming crabs—all such shelled seafood have high nutritional value, especially the natural seafood caught by ourselves—delicious and nutritious.

The seafood has been put into the pot for cooking. Tourist Xiao Zhang couldn't help but pop a freshly cooked swimming crab into his mouth. Xiao Zhang said he loves the sea here, the seafood, the air, and will definitely come again.

Fishing at sea is both a spiritual and material enjoyment. On holidays, ordinary you, take an extraordinary trip. Escape the city's noise, come here to be a Sansha person for a while—no regrets in life.

Ground cages are actually a type of fishing net made of plastic fiber, entirely hand-woven and knotted. They are divided into sections, usually about 50 cm per section. There are many interwoven entrances on both sides of the ground cage, with a relatively complex internal structure. Fish and shrimp find it hard to escape once inside. Exits are usually set in the middle-to-tail part of the cage, one on each side, or sometimes at both ends; small cages have only one exit at one end.

Boarding from Xiaoguzhen Laver Pier, it takes about 40 minutes to reach the waters near Yushan. Note that there is no toilet on the fishing boat, so tourists should take care of their needs before boarding; bring seasickness medication and take it before boarding.

The waters around Yushan are quite rich in products; basically, each pull of the ground cage yields a considerable number of shrimp, fish, crabs, etc.

This concludes the introduction to going out to sea. The joy of sea trips is undeniable, especially for those tired of city noise. You might as well come to Sansha for a visit—full of gains, spiritual and material.

Travelogue Contents:

1. Venice on the Sea

2. Trawl Fishing

3. Pulling Ground Cages

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