Chagan Lake Winter Fishing

National Intangible Cultural Heritage; The Mongol Under Ice Winter Fishing Of Chagan Lake In Qian Gorlos, Using Nets Up To Two Kilometres Long Hauled By Horse Windlass · Songyuan, Jilin

For something like a thousand years the Mongol and later Chinese fishermen of Chagan Lake have taken their catch in the dead of winter, through ice half a metre thick, using a method that has barely changed. A grid of holes is chiselled across hundreds of metres of frozen lake; a net up to two kilometres long is threaded beneath the ice from hole to hole with poles; and then horses walk in circles turning a wooden windlass, hauling the whole thing slowly in, until the last hole erupts with fish. A good haul brings up tens of thousands of kilos in a morning. It opens in late December with a ceremony of drums, horns and offerings - waking the net, they call it - and the first fish is auctioned for an absurd sum. Everything about it is genuine except the crowds, which are now considerable. And it is cold: twenty-five below, standing on ice, in wind, for several hours.

Chagan Lake, Qian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County, Songyuan, Songyuan, Jilin, China

STRICTLY SEASONAL FOR THE FISHING. The under-ice haul runs roughly LATE DECEMBER TO FEBRUARY, opening with a ceremony whose date is set each year and depends on the ice reaching a safe thickness - confirm before booking. Hauls START AT FIRST LIGHT and are largely finished by late morning, so arrive early. Access to the fishing ground is ticketed and prices rise in the opening days. OUTSIDE THE WINTER SEASON Chagan is an ordinary reed-fringed lake with summer boat trips and birdlife. Never walk onto the ice except where the crews direct.

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