Shanghaied Bob: Guilin part 2 Fishing village

In the afternoon we took another rafting trip farther down the river to visit Fishing village, (that is the name of the village). There history goes back 500 years and most of the homes architectural style still represents that of northern Guangxi Province during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. They have horse head walls,(walls built above the roof line to prevent the spread of fire from one home to the next) flying eaves and windows with carved patterns. They are also very proud of the fact that Bill Clinton and family visited the village back in 1998. The village has now become a tourist destination, and the locals have commercialized his visit. There are several big posters at the entrance of the village detailing the visit with pictures of Bill Clinton and a Chinese official. Then there is the home of a man where Bill Clinton visited and went to the roof for a view of the village and the unique roof-lines. He now charges tourist 1RMB ($.16) to do the same thing and take pictures. His neighbor two doors down does the same thing different angle. Each have several pictures taken with Bill Clinton on display in their homes.

The other famous thing the villagers are known for is there use of cormorants to catch fish. This practice goes back over a 1000 years were the fisherman train the cormorants to catch small fish. They tie a noose around the birds long neck to prevent it from swallowing its catch. When the cormorants catch a fish the fisherman brings the bird back to the boat and has the bird spit it out.

That evening we went out on the river again to look at a demonstration. There was one fisherman and 8 birds. Once on the river he chased the birds off the raft and immediately they started diving under the water and soon enough were catching small fish. He pulled them in, had them spit out the fish in a bucket and back into the water they went to catch more fish. After about 15 minutes he took off the noose and the birds went into a feed frenzy. Once he turned the boat motor on the birds stopped and returned to the boat for the ride back. It was amazing how well trained the birds were.