Episode 142 - Fishing Birds

This picture was taken at Zhou Zhuang near Shanghai.

Common cormorant can be trained as working birds. The birds are captured and trained to fish for their masters. These birds are great fishermen. The bird keeper will install a ring around the bird's neck before setting it to work. The bird jumps into the water and catches the fish as soon as it identifies one. The bird will of course try to eat the fish but the ring around its neck prevents it from doing so. The bird keeper can then take the fish out of the bird's throat.

Nowadays, fishing by common cormorants has become a tourists attraction activity. The birds and their masters become performers of fishing shows.

Episode 21 - Treasure Basin

Treasure Basin
- Zhou Zhuang (2)

Zhou Zhuang is said to be the home town of Shen Wanshen, a man of wealth living at the time of the Ming Dynasty.

According to a popular folklore, Shen once met a hawker selling frogs in the town. He took pity on the frogs, so he bought the frogs from the hawker and released them back to nature. One night, Shen was woken up by sound of croaks outside his house. He walked outside and saw some frogs holding up a ceramic basin in the pond in front of the house. The frogs were all croaking loudly. He took the basin and the frogs dispersed.

At first, Shen only used the basin to keep water. One day, Shen's wife dropped a piece of jewel in the basin. Before she picked it up, the piece of jewel suddenly transformed itself into a full basin of jewels. The basin was in fact a treasure duplicator. Without doubt, Shen soon became the richest man in the country.

The Emperior learned about this and was envious of Shen's fortune. So he ordered Shen to hand over the treasure basin. To the Emperior's great surprise, the basin lost its magic power once it was changed hands. The Emperior was so angry that he destroyed the treasure basin and buried the broken pieces under the city gate.

The lost basin has been subject of fantasy novels.   The original story was one about rewards resulting from good deed.  Most of the subsequent novels, however, speculated on how to revive the broken basin.    This fits well with the greedy human nature - no / little work but great return!


(Go to Part 1)

Episode 19 - Waterway at Zhou Zhuang

Waterway at Zhou Zhuang

This photo was taken from a bridge over the waterway. You can see the small harbour where the round-trip pleasure boats are moored.

It took a few hours' travelling time to come here from Shanghai, China, and I arrived in noon.

I had my lunch at a local restaurant. The quality of the food at that restaurant was below average. It's too salty. Although an unpleasant experience, it did not ruin my day as the town and the waterways were really attractive.

At the time of my visit, the town and the waterways at Zhou Zhuang were well maintained and were clean and pretty good looking. There was also a temple next to the town which was also well maintained. However, with the development of tourism, the town was packed with tourists and there were a lot of shops. It appeared that the artistic atmosphere of this traditional old town was fading away.  Would it be the same today?


See Episode 17 for the Waterway in Tai O.