Ice chiseled for fishing on frozen Dalinor Lake

By Zhao Xiao (chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2017-01-04

Recently, hundreds of local fishermen gathered for the winter fishing season on the frozen Dalinor Lake in Hexigten Banner of Chifeng, which both boosts the local fishery industry and attracts tourism.

Groups of fishermen drag nets with hundreds of fish over the ice-covered Dalinor Lake in Hexigten Banner of Chifeng, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Dec 29. [Photo/Xinhua]

Dalinor Lake, one fishery for the Inner Mongolia marine market, supplies tons of fresh fish for the region, alongside other provinces in China, every year.

With a pH as high as 9.69, Dalinor Lake is virtually a pond of soap water. Such an alkalinity would have made life impossible in most places, but the Dalinor is teeming with life. An indigenous species of migrating fish brings “traffic jams” to the rivers each spring, drawing more wildlife deep into this inland “sea”. The migratory swim of the Amur ide—one of the two commercially-valuable species in this lake—is a spectacle that has attracted many visitors in recent years.

Traditionally, the end of April is marked by the melting of winter ice on Dalinor Lake, which in turn is a signal for the Amur ide to burst out of the lake and multiply. The lake is fed by four rivers, of which the major ones are the Gongge’er and Shali rivers to the east. These two rivers are also the main “battlefields” for the spawning Amur ide, and that is where visitors’ cameras would be rolling.

To preserve the fishing industry and the marine environment, the timeframe for fishing allowed in the area is limited to only winter fishing.

A fisherman presents a newly-caught fresh fish to journalists near Dalinor Lake in Hexigten Banner of Chifeng, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Dec 29. [Photo/Xinhua]

Local fishermen utilize horses to drag back fishing nets cast in Dalinor lake in Hexigten Banner of Chifeng, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Dec 29. [Photo/Xinhua]

Fishermen pull nets with hundreds of fish on the ice-covered Dalinor Lake in Hexigten Banner of Chifeng, North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, on Dec 29. [Photo/Xinhua]