Why do we want to go to the island? Are the islands closed or open? This is the answer I'm looking for.
Reporter/Wu Liwei Photo/Zhang Lei
Zhuhai’s Wanshan Islands are located in the south of the Pearl River Estuary. Hundreds of islands are stacked layer by layer, becoming a natural barrier to South China (photo by Zhang Lei)
The dominant of Dangan Island
My impression of Dangan Island starts with a sense of fear.
Dangan Island is the farthest island from the mainland among the Wanshan Islands in Zhuhai. In 1989, a Macaque Provincial Nature Reserve was established on the island. According to You Yilai, deputy director of the reserve, in addition to protecting macaques, the protection of pythons, podium arhats, boxwood, etc. is also the responsibility of the reserve. The word "python" is really harsh. A few days before departure, I called Captain Liu Qingwei, who has been working on Dangan Island for many years:
"Captain Liu, are there really pythons on the island?"
"Oh, I get angry when I say it. A few days ago, I went back to the city for a meeting, and the python stole several of my chickens."
"Then... will the python attack people?"
"That depends on the situation."
......
I was always a little anxious in the next few days.
In order to take care of Liu Qingwei, the leader transferred him back to the city, but he still came back (photo by Zhang Lei)
Dangan Island is a narrow and long island that is named after it looks like a shoulder pole. Most ships dock at the Dangano Pier at one end of the shoulder pole. The other end of the island is called Dangano Tail. The protection area is located in the middle of the island, and its name is a more casual riding rod. A few years before the establishment of the reserve, residents on Dangan Island moved to the outside Lingding Island where the Dangan Town Government was located at the request of the government. Now at the Dangan Tou, some residents moved back, but the number was not large. The number of ships from , Xiangzhou Hong Kong to Dangan Island every week is very small. Under normal circumstances, there is only one ship every Monday and Wednesday. Once the weather at sea is not good, this route will be interrupted at any time. It is common for the island to be in urgent need of supplies. When we went there, the typhoon brought heavy rain. I heard that there was a seven-hour slow boat on Saturday to deliver goods to Dangan Island. More than 20 seats were sold on the ship, so I took advantage of the weather and decided to buy tickets and set off.
"Go to the boat carrying the rod and follow me." A tall boy patted me on the shoulder, "If you listen to you buying tickets in Mandarin, you will know that you will definitely not be able to find the position of the boat." His name is Aheng, and he loves sea fishing. On the weekend, he and a few friends were going to fish on Dangan Island. Follow him and walked around to the outside of Xiangzhou Hong Kong Pier to find the cargo ship. Several pigs were lying softly on the deck and napping. The chickens in the cage were still energetic. The names of the receiving villagers were written on the foam plastic boxes containing fruits and vegetables. The boat set off.
I met another team member from the reserve on the boat. He just came back from vacation. There are four team members working on Dangan Island in the reserve. Everyone takes turns to rest, each of whom can rest for one week per month. "Have you seen a python?" This was the question I was most concerned about at the time. The team member smiled and took out the python-catching video from his mobile phone to show me. When a thick sand gray and dark green pattern squirmed on the screen, I was in a bad mood. "It's funny to catch this python." The team member said, "At that time, it ate the old lady's chicken and couldn't move. We used the fishing net to lock it up and prepared to release it the next day. As a result, when we got up the next morning, we saw that there was no python. In order to escape, it spit out the chickens one by one and flee. Only then did it see clearly that one, two, three, and four, it actually ate four chickens!"
Dangan Island has very few residents. On the slow boat, you can occasionally see people going home (photo by Zhang Lei)
Dangan Island is like other islands in the Wanshan Islands. The whole island is covered by mountains, and a narrow cement road runs through the head and tail of the Dangan Island. The mountains are lush and the rainy season is abundant, and the branches on both sides of the road have to be taken care of every few days. On the early morning of rain, Liu Qingwei's wife Pan Hong went out to cut weeds, "Otherwise, when the weather clears, there might be snakes on the roadside. I was also scared when I first came, but now I'm used to it."
More than ten years ago, Liu Qingwei moved his home to the island.He has been on the island to protect monkeys since he just established the reserve in 1989, and he first lived on the hillside opposite the small and medium-sized pier in Dangan. Once, he was feeding the monkey with rice balls when he suddenly heard rustling sounds from the ditch beside the road. "I was holding a white shirt to block the sun. When I turned my head and saw that the python raised its head along the mountain's trend. I was quite thin at that time, and I felt that the python was about as thick as my waist. I also wondered why this head was so small, and did it have another big head." Liu Qingwei described it in a thrilling way. "The python's 'huh' screams were like a tiger roaring, scaring me to run desperately. I didn't know when the white shirt and rice balls were lost." There were several staff members of the South China Sea oil field on the island at that time, "I ran back and compared the python with their hands to draw the python. 'So big, so big.' Then I couldn't say anything. They asked: 'What's so big? The stone is so big? The monkey is so big? The bird is so big?' After calming down, they realized that I was talking about the python." Those people had seen pythons before. Taking advantage of the large number of people, they pulled Liu Qingwei back to settle the score with pythons. "Walking back, the python has already chased me for a long time. It was plated in the middle of the road, like a round cake, five or six meters long. Seeing that there were so many people, the python slowly climbed into the ditch. When it crawled away, it found that my white shirt was pressing down. It was November. In order to reserve energy for hibernation, the python would be aggressive to people. It smelled sweat on my clothes, so it lay on it." Several people did not let the python escape, and pressed its head and tail with all its hands and feet, and grabbed it into the cage. Liu Qingwei reported to the reserve and found a python on the island. Pythons are national first-class protected animals. They take them to the edge of the cliff to release them. In the future, they will use this method. "With the first experience, I won't be afraid in the future." Liu Qingwei said that when he saw other team members, his face turned pale when he ran in, and his hands were also chewing at the thickness of the two hands. "When I looked, I must have seen a python just like me in the past."
However, Liu Qingwei has always advised me not to bother me, "It's not so easy to see it. You really have to have good luck when you meet it." Guangdong people are always not afraid of snakes. On another island, an inn owner told me that it was also in the middle of the night that the python crawled into the lobby. The girl on duty was very calm, and she was filming the video while commenting. After filming, she asked someone to catch the python. "Guangdong people heard that a snake entered the house. The first sentence must be 'Isn't beaten to death, right?'. Snakes are wealth, especially pythons, called 'earth dragon', which is the most auspicious sign. Guangdong people are not too happy yet, who would be afraid?" The residents on Dangan Island just sprinkled sulfur in front of and behind the house. After all, pythons are very aggressive in summer, and the lively popularity scares it. But don’t forget that in addition to pythons, there are also bamboo leaf green, cobra, etc. on the island, but when the villagers talk about these poisonous snakes, they are like talking about a caterpillar.
has to rely on the macaques on the island, hoping that they can make people feel relaxed and happy. In the work tasks of the
protection area, the most important thing is to go up the mountain to feed monkeys, and take a bucket of raw corn kernels to the designated location for feeding them at around 9 am every day. "Don't lie to them, they will definitely not trust you next time." There are two monkey groups fed to Dangan Island, both of which are trusted by Liu Qingwei over time. The group who had been in contact with him for the longest time was named "Ashan", and got inspiration from Sun Wukong being called "Shan King" in "Journey to the West". I raised another group five or six years ago, named "Ahai", which sounds like an island. There are many monkeys on the island, and "Ashan" and "Ahai" are just a small part of them. When the reserve was established in 1989, the survey estimated that there were less than 300 macaques on the island. Nearly 30 years have passed. Liu Qingwei estimated that the number of macaques on the island is more than 1,300. "The reserve is not a feedlot. It is enough to feed the two groups, so it is better for monkeys to grow naturally."
The place where "Ashan" is fed on the abandoned basketball court of the troops on the hillside. As soon as we got there, we heard the intermittent "waving" sounds floating in the woods. After looking around for a long time, I finally found a "mountain carving"-like macaque standing on a big tree in the distance, staring at us. “It’s the third brother, responsible for keeping watch."Liu Qingwei looked at these monkeys every day and could clearly tell their division of labor. "The third brother always guarded the intersection, the second brother was responsible for maintaining internal order, and was also a pioneer in fighting. Then the Monkey King brought the monkey group together. "
This "three leaders" cooperated with Liu Qingwei's shouting to greet the young and old. "Ashan, let's have a meal! "Woo--" Liu Qingwei shouted in a very angry voice. He said, "Woo-" is the language of monkeys. "If you hear too much, you will know that they say 'Woo-' when they eat, and 'Woo-' when they fight, and whether they are happy or not is 'Woo-', but the tone is different." The monkeys saw our new faces and refused to move forward at first. When the bravest walked up to get the corn kernels in Liu Qingwei's hand, the rest gradually relaxed their guard. The middle-aged and elderly male monkeys had thick limbs and a steady gait showed their temperament; the little monkey hooked on the belly of the female monkey and jumped into the middle of a pile of corn kernels, and tried one after another, but they could never bite it. The thin young monkey could not suppress the ecstasy of seeing the food, rushed out of the woods, and leaped lightly over the ground. One by one, they finally greedily plunged into the corn pile.
Use corn kernels as food is the choice after optimization. When the reserve was first established, no one had any experience in feeding monkeys. Liu Qingwei pinched the cooked rice into a rice ball with a fist while it was hot. After a long time, he felt that the workload was very high. Later, he tried sliced sweet potatoes, "This is the most unrealistic. Sweet potatoes will be able to sprout in less than a month." Finally, he found that corn kernels were the most economical and practical. Liu Qingwei counted and found that 139 were almost all arrived, and he began to sprinkle corn on the ground in large quantities. "In the past, he sprinkled the larger area as much as he had. As a result, he found that when he was eating, he would look at each other and fight. So you have to sprinkle along a line, sprinkle in a straight line or in a circle, and they will be fine in line to eat. "
Liu Qingwei scattered a bucket of corn kernels from one end to the other in the middle of the basketball court. After sprinkling, he moved a stool and sat at the front to watch the monkeys eat. "When I was alone on the island, I would chat with monkeys and tell them if I had any worries. "Liu Qingwei looked at the group of monkeys every day and could recognize each of them. "The mother monkey was still big on the day before, but the little monkey crawled on it the next day. Sometimes there are old monkeys who don’t show up for a few days, and I know that they are probably dead. Monkeys would bury it, and if they couldn't find a suitable place, they would cover it with leaves. "
The monkey king standing at the front of the team is the Monkey King. It looks neither the highest nor the strongest, but in fact it is the most capable. The monkeys at the end of the team fight in various ways, but no one dares to compete with the Monkey King. It eats quietly alone, and the riots at the end of the team are two worlds. After eating, the monkeys have other provocations, and later they actually caught fire on me. Several times the monkeys roared at me and wanted to rush towards me with their teeth and claws. In an environment where monkeys are far more crowded, this move is still a bit shocking. Liu Qingwei laughed and said, "They are all the mother monkeys who yell at you. They can distinguish a person's gender, think you are a threat, and keep you away from the Monkey King. "Although it was just Liu Qingwei's guess, I still found it quite interesting, "Why do you say that lesbians cannot wear red clothes when feeding monkeys? Because the butt of the mother monkey is in heat. The female monkey will attack people because of the jealousy.
animals are the owners of the Gangan Island.
people who come to the island to fish in Shanghai will hire a speedboat so that they can climb the steep reefs (Zhang Lei Photo)
is closed, open
But what is its real charm for the islands occupied by humans?
million mountain archipelago is located in the south of the estuary of the Pearl River. Its scope has changed several times, and in a broad sense of geographical concept, it covers the administrative divisions of Zhuhai, Jiangmen and Hong Kong. 100 Among the many large and small islands, Zhuhai's 0,000 mountainous area has the largest area, including Guishan Town, on Guishan Island, , Wailingding Island, Dangan Island, Miaowan Island, , and Wanshan Town, which includes two major islands, 0,000 mountainous islands, and Dongao Island, .
After adjustment, the current population is relatively concentrated: Guishan Island, Wailingding Island, Wanshan Island and Dongao Island. Other islands are now very small due to remoteness, small area or natural conditions. What the major islands most desire is tourism development. The islands have their own remote and closed properties. For the local area, this is both attractive and full of limitations.
Yu Longfei is the strongest hotel owner on Guishan Island. He opened three hotels and inns, but it is difficult to find his industry on those commonly used hotel booking platforms. "On the island, cooperation with these platforms is not very meaningful." Yu Longfei said, "For us, the most important thing is not the source of customers, but the boat ticket." What should we do if the customer booked a hotel and couldn't buy a boat ticket? Or if the weather at sea suddenly changes and the shifts are cancelled? "We will confirm with the customer again after receiving the reservation. Whether we have bought a boat ticket, it will be useless if we can't buy a ticket. So we have no choice. We must have a ticket booking business on behalf of customers."
Last year, Zhuhai Xiangzhou Hong Kong, which is navigational to several major islands in the Wanshan Islands, opened a WeChat ticket booking platform, which finally made Yu Longfei breathe a sigh of relief. He quickly began a stable cooperation with Hong Kong. Those tourists who bought tickets can also conveniently book hotels on the platform, which is the pain point of island merchants. "In the past, in order to get tickets, I had to treat guests to dinner every few days and build relationships with people. I was very tired."
Dangan Island is located in a remote location and a cargo ship needs to supply materials to the island once a week (photo by Zhang Lei)
Guishan Island is the closest island to the mainland in the Wanshan Islands. It takes 50 minutes to sail. But convenient transportation does not mean that the number of ships is the most. Wailingding Island is further away from Xiangzhou Port, and it takes more than an hour to drive the ship, but there are many tourists and there are many ships to and from every day.
You can tell by walking around these major islands that the local geographical environment determines that the threshold for developing mass tourism is not low. The Wanshan Islands were originally part of mainland Guangdong and extended westwardly through Hong Kong. After the sea level rises, it floods the mountain valleys and low-lying areas, and this part gradually separates from the mainland and forms layered islands. The strata that makes up the Wanshan Islands are mainly the Yanshan granite in the late Jurassic. From the appearance of the island, most of the entire island is covered by hills and mountains. The coast is steep and the waves hit the huge reefs, making them broken. The coastal reefs of Guishan Island are very spectacular, but after walking around the island, I found that there are very few things that ordinary people can play with. It’s nothing more than digging small creatures on artificial beaches, or riding a bicycle to walk around the island. In order to drive the island tourism, Yu Longfei once made a tourism guide on food, clothing, housing and transportation on the island, but unfortunately, the yachts, sailing and other projects that Guishan originally wanted to develop did not start, and the brochures did not work. Wailingding Island is much lucky. In addition to the earliest tourism development, there is a combination of beaches and reef beaches on the island. On weekends, there are children and their parents carrying swimming rings on the cruise ships departing from Xiangzhou Hong Kong.
Dongao Island has a natural beach. On the other side of the pier on the island, people in Zhuhai have rated it as one of the "Top Ten Beautiful Scenery of Zhuhai". This is the biggest attraction of Dongao Island to ordinary tourists. A large part of the beach belongs to the business scope of a high-end hotel. There are activity centers on the beach, such as motorboats, banana boats, kayaking, etc. We took a sailboard and plunged into the sea under the guidance of the coach. The sea is sparkling under the sunset, but there is always a question that circulates in my mind. What kind of uniqueness is attracting tourists to play on the island? In other words, I overcome the traffic barrier and finally came to the island. What I experienced here is, how different is it to go to an ordinary beachside? If the island can give people a sense of purity, a luxury hotel on Wanshan Island is solving this problem, but when you stand at the entrance of the hotel, facing a steep cliff and coastal reefs, and the pier is the most common fishing boat returning to the port, it is probably difficult to take this step. The purity that can only be kept in a hotel should have little to do with the island.
The first person who inspired me was Aheng, a fishing friend I met on a cargo ship on Dangan Island.
The fisherman rented the kitchen from the homeowner and shared the dining table. There was no dinner ready. What did you catch with your ability (photo by Zhang Lei)
We followed him on the boat and found that half of the boat was people who went to Dangan Island to fish in the sea. Ah Heng went fishing with four friends, set off on Saturday and returned on Monday. The weather in Zhuhai was not good some time ago, but it made these people feel bad. "After seeing the macaque, you can go fishing with us when you have time." Ah Heng said.
The next afternoon, I called him and he was fishing on a rock on the head of the rod. "You have to take a boat to come." He asked us to find a man named Uncle Shui. Uncle Shui has a speedboat, which is responsible for the island traffic of several groups of fishing friends today. The boat drove eastward from the pole. In front of me was the vast sea, and fishing boats in the distance were in groups of three or three. At the end, there was a blurry outline of Hong Kong. Looking back, the reefs on the pole island were unevenly cut out sharp lines, forming a long dark wall along the direction of the boat. Along the way, I saw seven or eight fishermen standing on steep reefs, wearing various bright outdoor clothes, which were very easy to identify in the wild. When the sun sets, Uncle Shui will pick them away one by one. I saw the other side of Dangan Island from the sea.
Wanshan Island is a well-known dried fishing sun farm (photo by Zhang Lei)
Ah Heng and his friends were fishing for squid in a sheltered bay. Uncle Shui leaned the boat against the low reef so that we could climb onto a slightly flattened large stone block. "There is no way here to come from the island." Ah Heng said, "Sea fishing basically requires hiring a boat to send people to destinations after destination." He hung up a pink bait and threw the rod out "swoosh". Not long after, a squid took the bait. While being dragged away, the squid spurted out large balls of ink, dyeing the sea water black. After it was pulled onto the reef, it sprayed a large mouthful of hard, splashing Ah Heng's face.
"You can try too." He threw me a fishing rod for a junior player, and two thin hooks gently pulled them into the plasticine-like bait, and two small lumps were stuck, and then put the rod directly into the sea. This is my first fishing time. Follow Ah Heng's instructions to keep the float vertical and too far from the shore. Every 30 seconds, pull the hook up and refill the bait. Once you feel the hook sinking significantly, pull it up quickly. Not long after, I caught four or five small fish, one with colorful patterns, and the other with poisonous stings on the dorsal fin, which hurt for a long time after being stabbed. These little fish are gifts from the summer sea.
Ah Heng's trip came for mackerel. "Last week, I saw my friend catch more than 20 pounds and go back. But we were unlucky. That group of fish might have left. Today I didn't catch a marsh." But disappointment was part of the fun of fishing. "Sometimes, maybe I can't catch anything in a day. But even such a limited number of times of lifting the rod is worth it. When you lift it up, you have no idea what the answer is." Only the activity of combining
with the island's natural ecology has real charm. The island is far away from the mainland, and the fish in the surrounding waters are very different. For sea anglers, this is why the seaside can never replace the island. The conditions of fish in the sea vary greatly in different seasons and weather, because with islands, there is an additional fulcrum for sea fishing people. Summer is a good time to fish mackerels outside and carry rods. There are also many Zhanghong, tuna and sailfish, and winter is the harvest season for fishermen. Various migratory fish return to the Pearl River Delta to lay eggs, and many people go to Dong'ao and Wanshan Island to fish for black snapper. "Wind, flow, and water" are the three major basis for sea fishermen to make judgments. Ah Heng said that typhoon days are good seasons for fishing, and fish have strong ability to perceive nature. When the typhoon is coming, it will stock up on more energy for itself. When the typhoon is approaching, all the fish will start to go on a hunger strike until the typhoon has passed and will not recover their appetite. "Flow" refers to the tide. When the water rises and falls, it is difficult for fish to catch. This is also the time for fishermen to accumulate energy. "When the water flows, fish like to forage. During the tide, 6 to 8 minutes are the most active period for fish." "Water" refers to clarity. If the visibility of water exceeds five or six meters, the fish can also see you on the shore.
"We like the islands we like must not go with the feeling of enjoyment. Going is just looking for the feeling of 'wild', such as setting up a tent to camp or something, and cooking is not ready to go, it depends on what you have the ability to catch." After returning to the head of the boat, Ah Heng took us to Uncle Shui's house to open a stove. Everyone relies on self-sufficiency on the island. Uncle Shui's house can rent a kitchen. Several groups of anglers take turns cooking in the kitchen. After dinner, they are also responsible for cleaning the dishes and chopsticks.
Ah Heng took out the two squids I had just caught from the box, washed and blanched them, dipped in soy sauce and mustard; seven or eight small fish, sprinkled with shredded ginger and garlic, and steamed them in a pot; the spicy snails dug on the rocks were also steamed after being steamed; then stir-fry them with sea urchin grabbed from the dock, eggs and lunch meat; finally, a simple vegetable, and when the rice is ready, it is already 9 pm. Aheng has a friend from the island and has moved to Zhuhai to live. This time, Aheng took the key to live in his house on his friend Dangan Island, saving the pain of camping like on other islands. However, the houses on Dangan Island are also very simple.
I was really happy to go fishing with Ah Heng, and my questions gradually got answers. When you choose a leeward-flowing bay for squid fishing with your familiarity with the sea and landforms, you have already broken through the shackles of the island. Although climbing reefs is dangerous, it is refreshing. Those corners that you look down on the island and feel unattainable can now be observed and crossed from bottom to top. When the weather is good, you can still watch the sunrise and sunset. I believe that at that moment, you will definitely not feel that the island is closed. While enjoying the purity, it is opening a new door for you.
Mazu is the guardian of the island. The Mazu temple on the island is carefully taken care of by fishermen (photo taken by Zhang Lei)
Another door
Everyone who runs to the island has a little intention of escaping.
Aheng is already in his 30s, but because of his straightforward personality, his career has always been unstable, which has led to the lack of effective accumulation of his income. He cannot be regarded as the best among his peers in terms of sense of accomplishment or wealth. Sea fishing is a money-burning hobby. I met several groups of fishermen outside. I had money and leisure, so I wish I could go to the island to fish every week. I had to charter a boat and stay for several days in order to enjoy it. The bait I put on the fish was much more expensive than the rice I had to stew in a hurry. Ah Heng cannot reach this level. For this hobby, he has to calculate the cost carefully every time, and he has to use the banner of allowing his family to eat good seafood.
Aheng has fallen in love with fishing since he was 13 years old. He once thought about turning his biggest hobby in his life into his career. I went to participate in the fishing competition and felt that it was too utilitarian and uncomfortable. I also worked in the fishing tackle store, and there were many people and things I didn’t like. Recently, he wanted to resign again, and the fuse was that he spoke up for a female employee who was sexually harassed by his boss, but was excluded. "There is no way, this is my personality. If this is not the case, we will not know each other. Others may not volunteer to take you to find a boat just because you speak Mandarin." On the other hand, Ah Heng also had to consider the issue of having a child, but raising a child is a relatively large burden for him. Running to the reef to fish, all the calls can be rejected on the grounds of bad signals, which is his occasionally release of himself.
Liu Qingwei is even more exiled in a city. In 1989, he was sent to Dangan Island to be on duty just after he was transferred from the army. When I first came to the island, my eyes were no different from the deserted island. "The thatch on the pier can be higher than the top of a person's head." He moved into the abandoned house of the former Danganzhong Commune, with no water or electricity. He looked at the sea until it was so dark that it was completely out of sight, so he covered his head and fell asleep. At that time, there were several villagers on the head of the stern. They walked along the road, and only the "Chopstick Road" built by the troops was to lay cement on the dirt where only two ruts were rutted. It is the most troublesome thing to not find the water source. In winter, the ditches on the mountain were all dry. It was only after finally finding an abandoned well for the army two or three kilometers away. Every time I came back from carrying water, I had to filter and precipitate twice before I could barely drink it. Food is also a big problem.Once the external supply is interrupted, I can only rely on soy sauce to make a living. "I have eaten the old rice that is older than myself. The rice is soft when eaten in my mouth and melts immediately." So we opened wasteland to farm, including peppers, cabbage, beans and pumpkins. The harvest in the first year is OK, but it will not work after the second year. The monkeys ate it very well.
Liu Qingwei was very difficult to feed monkeys at the beginning. He set up rice balls where he found the monkey, either without anyone's attention or was scratched by the monkey's arm because he was fighting for food. "Ashan" and Liu Qingwei have been together for more than 20 years. At first, they were found far away on the mountain. They took more than an hour to climb up and fed them for a long time. After getting familiar with them, they began to lead them down. "Transfer 100 meters and 100 meters, and feed it for several months every 100 meters down before you can change the place." Finally, it was led to the old basketball court of the troops today.
"At the beginning, I also thought that I would go back after working here for a few years." Liu Qingwei gritted his teeth and persevered. Later, he got married and had children in Zhuhai, but his ideas gradually changed. Around 2004, in order to take care of him, the reserve arranged him to work at the Qiao Island , which is very close to the city, where there is a mangrove reserve. Liu Qingwei felt uncomfortable when he worked for a while. "Every evening, I am very concerned about the monkeys on the island. As I think about it, I want to cry." So he moved back to Dangan Island, and then simply moved his entire home over. Liu Qingwei's family is a bit unfortunate. His son Congcong had a high fever when he was four months old and was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. "I finally accepted my fate and couldn't cure it." After going to the island, Congcong was obviously much happier than in the city. "There are not so many people here, and the children are still a little inferior when they see people. I am used to it, and I feel very uncomfortable when I see the garbage dump in the city." Liu Qingwei grew up in the rural area of northern Guangdong. Before he joined the army, his hometown was a typical rural appearance. Along the way, it can be said that he did not have much urban experience and was more likely to accept the pure and free life on the island. What's more, there are monkeys accompanying them on the island. Compared with land life, the life picture of monkeys is almost completely new.
"What are you doing? It's watching what you are doing next to you. I'm the most annoying to this." His wife Pan Hong was diligent and clean. When she talked about the monkey, she was angry and funny. "Once, the monkey saw me killing a chicken. The next day I went to the chicken cage to see that a little chicken had all her hair pulled out, leaving only a thigh on her head. I thought about it and must have done it secretly after I left yesterday." They used to live in an abandoned military barracks in the woods, which was the territory of "Ashan" activities. The monkeys were not afraid of them. Seeing people washing clothes by the river and drying them, when the people turned around, they pulled them down and dragged them to the river to continue washing. Pan Hong found it very funny and didn't stop it. She wrung it out and put it back after the monkey had enough fun. Unexpectedly, her clothes disappeared after dawn the next day. "I couldn't find it no matter how hard I looked. It took a long time to find the clothes on the top of the tree on the mountain. She was so angry that she couldn't take them off at all."
is more about people learning from monkeys.
The weather at sea suddenly changed, and the supplies on Dangan Island were cut off. Liu Qingwei saw what wild fruits and leaves the monkeys ate, and he picked them up and savored the taste, "Some leaves are quite delicious." Myrtle is also called a twister. It bears fruits while blooming. The fruits can be eaten directly or brewed with wine. The fruits of white cinnamon wood are sour and appetizing when they are ripe, and when they are ripe, they have a delicious sweet and sour taste; maple seeds and black koh tea seeds taste sweet; the buds of Pora Bear and the fruits of Golden Cherry Zhezi can be used for tea; in winter, monkeys eat sycamore leaves and some leaves that cannot be named, which are also Liu Qingwei's last choice in extreme winter weather.
After the reform and opening up, Guishan Island took the lead in learning from Hong Kong and carried out cage farming (photo by Zhang Lei)
Once, Liu Qingwei caught a few fish at the dock and came back. The monkey jumped up and down and rushed towards him, anxiously trying to eat it. He accidentally stuck his hand on the thorn on the back of the fish, which was so painful. "It was so painful that it rolled around. It pressed its hands on the ground and rubbed forward like a tractor. It couldn't be relieved. Later, it came to see it running to bite the drip of water Guanyin, but it didn't expect it to calm down after a few bites.I only found that the juice of Guanyin can relieve pain, but don’t touch it normally, as it will be itchy when it is touched on the skin. "Liu Qingwei was once stumbled into the cuff by a group of hornets. He almost fainted in pain. Thinking of the dripping Guanyin, he tried it and it turned out to be very effective.
He also found clues to treat human hidden diseases. Monkeys enter estrus every winter, and in a group of monkeys, only the monkey king has the right to mating. It will explode in winter and mating with the mother monkeys in the group of monkeys. Liu Qingwei has been with the monkeys for a long time and concluded that a vine This plant must help promote the sexual desire of monkeys. "This plant only blooms every two years. The Monkey King eats its fruits in winter. If other monkeys dare to eat them, it will bite them." Liu Qingwei took the holiday back to Zhuhai to visit relatives and took this fruit to a research institution for testing, which proved that it can indeed treat male prostatitis. He also brought it back to some friends on the island for trial, and the feedback was good, "But don't write what it is, I'm afraid that someone who is interested can use it to develop it. , the monkeys will eat it at that time."
stayed on the island all year round, and he was definitely considered half a grassroots scientific researcher. When he was feeding monkeys, he saw some of the female monkeys having internal hemorrhoids after giving birth, but they were magically cured after two or three days. Later, he saw a monkey with hemorrhoids holding a tree root and gnawing. He waited for the monkeys to finish gnawing, digging some and getting tested in research institutions, but no effect was detected. He didn't believe it anymore. First, he dug the roots together, but it still couldn't work. He came back and continued to observe, digging out the roots in four directions, east, south and north, and then he recorded the excavation time. Finally, the experimental results showed that only the roots dug in the east and before the sun rose had the effect of treating hemorrhoids.
Million Mountain Islands were originally the Lotus Mountains in eastern Guangdong to the west through Hong Kong, and most of the islands were covered by hills and mountains (Zhang Lei Photo)
There are also some research institutions coming to the island for inspection, but when it comes to macaque habits, he has a clear understanding of the habits of macaques than most professors. Once, teachers and students from colleges and universities came to the island for research, and a female student asked: "Does monkeys have menstruation? "The professor doesn't know such details, but I know, I told her that the female monkey has menstruation once a year. In winter, it is the season for monkeys to mate. "Liu Qingwei said that the ecology of monkeys and Dangan Island is a wonderful organic combination. March to April of each year is the season when the little monkeys are born. "The little monkeys will walk as soon as they are born, but most of the time during breastfeeding is held by their mothers." July and August are the time for the little monkeys to wean them. "At this time, the wild fruits on the mountain are basically ripe, and the fruits of the twigs are fragrant and sweet, and they are very soft. The mother monkeys use this as a transitional food to wean the little monkeys." The little monkeys are the heart meat that everyone loves in the monkeys. When Liu Qingwei feeds "Ashan", the monkeys do not stop and can't stop fighting and fighting with each other. Sometimes they have to ask helpers to come over. He helped himself, but no one bullied the newly born furry little monkey. The little monkey has been favored for no more than three years. Liu Qingwei saw a young male monkey crawling towards the female monkey, "It's over, it will be driven away by the Monkey King soon." The three-year-old macaques become adults, and the male monkeys will be driven out by the Monkey King. They form a small group and fight and forage everywhere. The one who can fight among them will become the leader who convinces the crowd. It leads his brothers to fight everywhere. Once the leader of this little monkey successfully challenged the old Monkey King, all the monkeys in this group will surrender to it. "In the past twenty years since I feed the monkey, the leader of 'Ashan' has also changed a lot. "Liu Qingwei pointed to the current Monkey King and said, "It has been in charge for more than two years, so it's about to step down. You see, it is already a little weak now. It has a fight with someone a few days ago and has a big hole in its belly, but it has not yet grown well. "The most glorious three years have passed. The old monkey king either died in battle or bowed down to the weakest end of his life. It is quite sad to think about it. The new monkey king will consciously bypass his family in the process of grabbing territory. After the little mother monkey in the group matures, the throne of the monkey king has basically changed hands, thus avoiding the possibility of the close relatives of the monkey group being united.
Stand on the reef fishing, enjoying the purity, the island is also opening a new door for you (photo taken by Zhang Lei)
But it feels very far away from animals. The most precious thing on the island is fresh fruits and vegetables. We brought some apples to Liu Qingwei as gifts. His first words were: "Monkeys love apples." I told him several times that the apples were for their family to eat, but he still took one out and wanted to feed "Ahai". "Ahai" and Liu Qingwei have been together for a shorter time. Liu Qingwei stood on the side of the road and called them "woof" for a long time before one or two of them finally showed their heads. He nibbled the apples and threw them to the monkeys, but the monkey didn't give him much face, so he lazily finished eating and walked away.
"When facing animals, it is most taboo to guess them with human feelings." Feng Kang is a staff member of the Science and Technology Department of the Provincial Nature Reserve Management Office of Jiangmen China White Dolphin Provincial Nature Reserve. He once studied the animal training of river porpoises at the Yangtze River Aquatic Products Research Institute. When he came to the White Dolphin Reserve, he not only wanted to further practice the animal training concept that he wanted to practice further could not be achieved, but his relationship with white dolphins also became a distant gaze.
The Pearl River Estuary Sea is the main habitat of Chinese white dolphins. They live in the estuary salty and fresh water convergence waters of the subtropical sea area and like to move within a water depth of 5 to 20 meters. Worldwide, Chinese white dolphins are mainly distributed in northern Australia, the western Pacific coast, the Indian Ocean coast and the southeastern Africa coast. In China, white dolphins mainly appear in the southeast coastal areas, including the east and west coasts of the Taiwan Strait, the Pearl River Estuary, the waters of Zhanjiang, and the Beibu Gulf. White dolphins have discovered more than 6,000 people worldwide, including more than 4,000 people in Chinese waters. The Jiangmen White Dolphin Reserve is located in the waters near Taishan City Dajin Island under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen City . The number of white dolphins has been found at present. The National Nature Reserve of Chinese White Dolphins in Zhujiangkou, Guangdong, which is not far away from it, is located in the waters of the Wanshan Islands in Zhuhai City. In the middle of Qiao Island, Lingding Island in , Niutou Island in Guishan Town, and Dahao Island in Hong Kong, the number of white dolphins investigated is more than 2,300, making it the most concentrated area of Chinese white dolphins in the world.
In the Bai Dolphin protection zone in Jiangmen and Zhuhai, daily protection work is completed by cruising on sea. On a morning with extremely strong sunlight, we went out to sea with Feng Kang. There were many fishing boats operating in the waters near Dajin Island. White waves were floating on the sea. Feng Kang was able to quickly tell which one was a white dolphin jumping. The white dolphin breathes with its lungs, and its nostrils grow on the top of its head. Every time it breathes, it will breathe with its nostrils, forming a mist on the surrounding water surface.
Million Mountains Islands were originally the Lotus Mountains in eastern Guangdong that extended westward through Hong Kong. Most of the islands were covered by hills and mountains (photo by Zhang Lei)
I was lucky that day and saw many white dolphins. The so-called seeing only happened within a second when half of their bodies jumped out of the water. White dolphins usually come in groups of three or five. They do not jump at a high height, but they can still tell different ages from their skin. The dark blue ones are dolphin babies. When their skin color gradually fades and many spots appear. Slowly, these spots will concentrate and the skin color will become light pink. When the whole body becomes smooth pink white, the white dolphins enter the old age of life.
The white dolphin starts from exposing half of its head, arches upwards the dorsal fin with the triangle exposed, and finally throws out a little tail leaf and drills back into the water. This moment is also the whole process recorded by Feng Kang. He held up his camera and pressed the shutter repeatedly. After he went back, he got to know the dolphins based on the shape of his dorsal fin. "The dorsal fin of each dolphin is different. Through the dorsal fin, we can roughly determine the number of dolphins."
Feng Kang has participated in several rescue operations of white dolphins, but the distance between humans and animals is still far away. An elderly white dolphin went upstream and entered freshwater waters. Generally speaking, white dolphins could not live in freshwater for a long time. The reserve sent a boat to monitor it, and the white dolphin's skin began to ulcerate a few days later."We don't understand why it went there, maybe it was because it was lost in pursuit of food." Feng Kang said that the rescue operation lasted for more than ten days, just in time for the Spring Festival holiday, and there were a lot of people watching on the shore. "We can only drive it away, give it a direction, and let it return to the sea, but it is always unwilling to leave. The method of trawling is not advisable. Dolphins will be very scared. They struggle desperately and will consume a lot of physical strength." The rescue ended in failure. One day, the white dolphin did not jump out of the sea to breathe.
If the white dolphin is stranded due to injury, it is necessary to manually intervene in the rescue. The national protected area located in Zhuhai has a rescue station on Qiao Island. Chen Xi, head of the technical department, introduced us to the core scope of the current protected area on a schematic diagram. The area designated in the 1990s is now densely packed with waterways, and high-speed passenger and freighters will inevitably cause harm to the white dolphins living in this area. In 2012, the reserve successfully rescued a white dolphin named "Lao Bai". It was stranded in a mud-covered river channel, and it was snow-white all over. Most of its teeth had been smoothed out, had poor predation ability, slow movement, and looked very aged. The dorsal fin of "Laobai" was once interrupted by a propeller. In 1996, a Hong Kong teacher observed and recorded it. More than ten years later, the old friend "Lao Bai" appeared again in the human vision. Rescuers from Guangdong and Hong Kong conducted physical examinations and treatments on it. It eventually died of organ failure after surviving at the rescue station for nearly a year. "'Lao Bai' was very resistant to rescue. It was not until the later stage that he gradually felt trust in us. He gave it fish to eat it, and it was no longer afraid." Chen Xi said, "The outside world thinks that dolphins have a high IQ and are very human, but in fact it may not be that way. We have seen reports of dolphins saving people, but I think that it may be because the state of a person after falling into the water is very similar to the way a little dolphin can't swim when he was born. The dolphin mother will push it out of the water and breathe, so there will be similar rescue actions."
For dolphins, the premise of conducting investigations in the reserve is to minimize interference. "It is not scientific to attract it with fish and take photos of it." Feng Kang originally came with the ideal of practical animal training, but his actual work in the reserve was getting further and further away from this goal.
is free, alienated from
But not everyone who loves animals on the island will feel a sense of belonging to the island.
Yeli Island is adjacent to the coastline of in Xiangzhou District. Two parallel bridges connect the island with land. The island has a landmark shell-shaped opera house and cement surface trail, but it is still a convenient bird watching location for bird watching enthusiasts. Zhuhai is located on the Asian-Oceanian migratory bird migration channel, and is an important stop for international migratory birds to stop, reproduce and overwinter during their migration. In Zhuhai, there are a large number of migratory birds in winter, migratory birds in summer and lingering birds.
"Hailan" and "Young Marshal in the Forest" are the founders of Zhuhai Birdwatching Association. When they woke up in the morning, they saw that the weather was good, so they took advantage of the coolness and went to Yeli Island to watch birds with their cameras and telescopes. After the tide receded, the nearby reefs were exposed, and a group of egrets stopped leisurely here. They kept a distance between them and the people on the shore, and occasionally a fishing boat was docked in, so they were not panicked at all. "You have good luck today," Hailan said to me, "Look, there is a rock heron and a green heron today."
Rock heron is a national second-class protected animal. It has a relatively large number in Zhuhai, but it depends on some luck to see it on a specific day. I tightened my eyes and stared at the monoculars looking for the birds. Several birds of different colors stand on the same reef: the clever bird jumping behind the egret is a snipe; the big gray bird standing quietly on the left side of the egret and close to the egret is a rock egret, which is a typical coastal bird. It likes to stand by the reef and specializes in picking fish with thorns, mud and other thorny fish; the green egret stands on the right side of the egret, which stands in front, with its wings stacked on both sides of its belly appearing in the shape of a flower, and its feathers shine green in the sun. After a while, another white-breasted jade flew over the reef. In addition to the white feathers on its chest, part of its back and wings are lake blue, which is very eye-catching.On the other side of Yeli Island, the original wetland was converted into cement piles, but there were still many crabs and sea cockroaches crawling around on it while the tide was low, which attracted gray-tailed drifting snipers who had stayed in Zhuhai for two periods.
"From our five-year observation record, 70% of the more than 200 species of birds known in Zhuhai live on islands." Hailan said that the Birdwatching Association often organizes bird watching activities on the island. This year they have selected the 10 best bird watching islands in Zhuhai, and the proportion of bird watching activities on the island has further increased.
The main tree species such as mangroves on Qiao Island Guishan Island is close to Hong Kong and has learned a lot of experience in fishery breeding (photo by Zhang Lei)
In relatively far islands, Wailingding Island is a very representative bird watching spot. Every year, the bird watching association holds a bird watching invitational competition on Wailingding Island. The black-pillow tern in the Birdwatching Association bid was taken by the young marshal in the forest on Outing Lingding Island. Against the background of blue sky and white clouds, the translucent belly of the black-pillow tern is a jade-like pink. Its figure is agile and its flying posture is very graceful. Black-pillow terns like to stand on the reefs, especially the clear blue and transparent water edges, which allows it to see more fish. "The best time to observe the black-pillow tern is in May every year," Hailan said. "April to June is its mating and breeding period, with the most fish in May, and the black-pillow tern appears the most frequently. It is interesting to see them with a telescope. Both male birds give fish to the female birds for food, but the female birds will only accept one of them. Once they accept it, it will be very dedicated." During this period, the observation of the black-pillow tern can be very meticulous, "There is one action that is particularly beautiful. A black-pillow tern has a raised tail and is combing its feathers from top to bottom in the sunset. Every movement and behavior of their movements and behaviors can be seen clearly, and a story that is not repeated throughout the day can be seen."
The experience of observing white-bellied sea eagles on Dong'ao Island has also made Hailan very unforgettable. The white-bellied sea eagle is a medium-sized raptor. It has a width of nearly one meter when spreading its wings. Generally, many of them will not appear at the same time. "But once, we were on the beach of Nanshawan, and suddenly we heard a bird of prey chirping in the air. When we looked up, we found that two white-bellied sea eagles were driving away the black-eared kites and the big-mouthed crow. They fought each other." Hailan said, "At that moment, I just regretted that the telephoto was not long enough, and I hated that I was not fast enough. Several of us followed the direction of the birds flying and chased them all the way to the mountain next to us. At that time, we ran at a speed of 100 meters and didn't feel tired at all."
Another ideal bird watching island is Qiao Island, which is closer to the city. Qiao Island is a famous mangrove reserve and belongs to the same unit as the Macaque Reserve on Dangan Island. Woods, mudflats, fish and shrimps are all fatal attraction for birds. The Birdwatching Association not only watches birds on the island for a long time, but also designed 9 bird watching routes for Qiao Island. When organizing bird watching competitions every year, each team must follow 9 routes respectively. This is not only a competition, but also a new survey.
At the end of 2013, the Zhuhai Bird Watching Association discovered the black-faced spoonbill for the first time on Qiao Island. "We saw the egret first." Hailan recalled that one of them was keeping his head down and eating. After another bird pecked, his head would rise. Only it swept around the fish pond with its mouth, and never looked up. "Based on experience, I think it might be a spoonbill, so I quickly said to the person next to me: 'Quiet, quiet, don't move, there may be a major discovery.' Notify other friends who are watching birds on the island to come here immediately." Hailan said that the winter in Zhuhai was particularly cold that year. The wind was very strong on the day of bird watching. The monocular telescope lost its stability and could not match the focus. Finally, the telephoto lens vaguely captured the figure of the black-faced spoonbill, a long black flat spoon-shaped beak, which looked like a pipa, was its most obvious feature. The black-faced spoonbill is a national second-class protected animal. It breeds on islands near Lushun, Liaoning. It overwinters in the southeast coastal areas in winter. This discovery on Qiao Island is the first record in Zhuhai. “And we found it again three years later."Hailan said that from the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017, the Birdwatching Association found a separate black-faced spoonbill in several observations, indicating that it spent the whole winter here.
Hailan and the Young Marshal of the Forest were interested in bird watching for a long time. After retirement, they simply set up a birdwatching association to contribute to public welfare undertakings. They were tired, but they also had endless fun. Birdwatching can be done anytime and anywhere. When they were intrigued, they carried their equipment and ran to the Phoenix Mountain in the city to watch insects and owls at night. They had the chance, every year It is also necessary to organize an inspection in the north, west or abroad in China.
birds are mobile, and they can stay on the island and become part of the urban ecology. This free and loose state cuts off the closed and open relationship between islands and people. The more compensation birdwatchers get in the city, the less they are attached to the island. In their eyes, the island is just a place where birds meet richly.
(Thanks to Cheng Bin, a natural ecological photographer, for helping this article)
