Under the Ice

At dawn, workers at a fishery on Chagan Lake in Qian Gorlos Mongolian Autonomous County, Songyuan city, northeast China's Jilin Province, haul part of a fishing net from under the ice, watching plump fish jump out of the hole they dug there the previous night. "This is the 'lucky blind box' that we’re about to launch soon," Xu Jian, one of the workers, told People's Daily. He explained that they were testing a new tourism experience that allows visitors to make a hole in the ice and retrieve submerged nets. The fish caught in the nets will be offered as a reward to visitors who have taken part in the experience, according to Xu. Local fishermen catch fish on the frozen Chagan Lake in Songyuan city, northeast China's Jilin Province, Dec. 28, 2022. ( tasteallchina /Xu Chang) Chagan Lake has a sound ecological environment and is home to many different species of fish, including bighead carp, black carp, grass carp, catfish, and silver carp, according to a credible source, who said that 5,000 tonnes of fresh fish are harvested from the lake every year. As the fish population in Chagan Lake and the income of local people were significantly increased…