Xiapu: The Most Recommended Place for Scenic and Pictorial Photography
China is so vast, I want to see it. Take you to a place you may have visited or not.
Xiapu, the most recommended place for scenic and pictorial photography.
Xiapu, a county under Ningde city in eastern Fujian, established in 1738 (as of 2020), has a coastline of over 400 kilometers and over one million mu of mudflats, the largest in the country. The mudflat scenery is enchanting and distinctive. All kinds of ideal scenery patterns that Chinese people dream of can be found here, making photographers flock there. In 2019, the number of travel photographers visiting Xiapu reached over 6 million, and it is praised by the photography community as "China's Most Beautiful Mudflats."
Islands of Zhejiang, bays of Fujian. A bay is a sea inlet with mountains on three sides and water on one side, matching the Chinese perception of mountains and waters.
Xiapu has many photography spots, from mudflats to fishing villages and ancient villages. Beiqi is one of the most brilliant photography spots of Xiapu mudflats. Creative content mainly revolves around sunrise and sunset over the mudflats, sea gathering, and beach cultivation. I am not a photographer, so I didn't go to take photos; I just went to Beiqi to have a look. Because it wasn't the best time for light and shadow photography, I didn't see many photographers.
Scattered on the mudflats are nori racks and boats. At high tide, busy boats shuttle among the buoy poles and shadows (the nori racks), blending with the sea, distant mountains, and islands. Photographers often walk among them at this time, seeking creative light and inspiration.
On the shore you can only look from afar.
Or choose a place with a beach for play, because besides photography, there's no place for fun. Garbage thrown by tourists is also washed ashore by waves.
Also, you can take this simple raft for a spin around the mudflat pasture to satisfy visual and photography needs. To get good photos, you need to hire a boat and wait for the right time.
Climbing the cliffs, you can watch sunrise and sunset, and also overlook the mudflats.
Xiapu, a holy land for pictorial photography. For photographers, it's a place to produce great shots, and it has formed an industry. You can hire fishermen as models, rent boats to go out to sea. But for those who live off the sea, it is very hard. The three toughest things in the world: fishing, blacksmithing, and grinding tofu; sea gathering is one of them.
Original ecological fishermen by the shore.
When I arrived, it was high tide, so I didn't see any mudflat work. This type of wide-bottomed small boat is a work boat for planting and harvesting nori and kelp in the sea.
This single-person tool for small-scale sea gathering is called a "mud horse," used to collect small seafood in the mudflats.
Xiapu is a beautiful bay county town. The county museum, opera house, and science and technology planning hall lined up in a row reflect Xiapu's economic strength. At the museum, I saw the Xiapu mudflat photography exhibition, which can only be described as stunning.
