It's a small fishing village of over 100 households.
We live where the Yellow River meets the sea.
It's rich in marine resources.
We didn't go home last night because we got few clams, so we remained on the sea for more catches.
In one year, we even made a total of 900 ,000.
No one is that free here if they live on fishing.
At the mouth of the Yyloo River, we get a glimpse of how people's lives have been changing in places where fishing is still very much alive against the backdrop of a world of digital transformation.
Stay tuned to episode 10 of our 12 part series, the Yyloo River mosaic, a life at sea.
July 20, 2023. Honggong New Village at the mouth of the Yellow River, Shandong province.
Of the boy who dares to sleep.
The boy who dares to sleep.
Originating on the plateau in Northwest China and running eastward for more than 5 ,400 kilometers, the Yellow River, the country's second -longest river, enters the sea by the city of Dong Yiu.
Hongkong new villages, one of a dozen villages scattered around the estuar.
Fishermen from neighboring counties have settled here since the 1980s and have preserved their traditional ways of living.
Looking extremely exhausted, a young woman was sitting by the cockpit of a boat.
a hair, face, hands and clothes all covered in mud.
She is Ye Tien Wen.
Hi, I'm Xiaoyu. I was born in 1989.
I've been fishing for 15 years.
I'm her husband, Wang DaoQing.
I'm 1 year for senior.
I dropped out of school at 14 and have since been working on the boat.
My parents -in -law gave us a fishing boat when we got married in 2009.
We started to go fishing together since then.
Over the years, we have switched from the small boat to a large one, and then back to the small boat.
We had worked hard and saved up some money, but now we have to rely on the small boat to pay our debt.
I feel really bad because my wife has to suffer all the hardships with me So close we're young there will be bread and there will be milk Are you crying?
Xiaoye paused, turned to her husband and reached out to wipe away his tears.
At that point, she couldn't help but burst into tears herself.
The couple hugged each other.
After a one hour drive from downtown Dong Ying, I arrived at Hongguang new village on a sweater in afternoon.
We're allowed to go jellyfishing starting from today, for a few days.
— We've been waiting for this for more than two months.
— All the containers will be filled with jellyfish tonight.
— In Dongying, fishing is banned from May to August to prevent overfishing and protect the ecosystem.
system. In July, however, the ban is usually lifted for several days for jellyfishing.
We have 15 days to catch jellyfish this year.
Each boat has at least five to six workers on board, but we've hired just one temp worker.
She takes the After picking up some clothes and saying goodbye to her one year old son, Xiaoyu hurried off to buy vegetables to prepare for their days on the sea.
My husband just called and said the tempest vegetarian.
Grabbing some groceries from the store, Xiaojie asked the shop owner to put them on a slate so that she would pay for them when she's back.
Then she rushed to her car.
I'll miss my son's bathroom.
I cannot bear to see kids parting with their parents when they go to work in cities and leave their children in the care of grandparents.
Driving down the road, Xiaoyu tried to cover up emotions with laughing, as rows of white houses in the rear mirror faded into the distance.
I cannot bring my son with me.
It's time to make money for short of hands as we've hired just one worker.
It will be terribly busy.
Nearly 200 boats are docked at the wharf.
Most of them are identical wooden boats of 15 meters long and 5 meters wide, just like Xiao Yia's.
A dozen anchors weighing 40 kilograms each lie at the front of the boat, motors on the stern.
A fridge stands beneath the cockpit, and is filled with ice, steamed bread, veggies, meat and drinking water.
Sometimes, we could load 10 ,000 kilograms of jellyfish onto the boat in three hours.
You've got to collect the catches every two to three hours, or they will be swept away by the tide." Wong Dao Jin, Xiaoye's husband, said the tide flows and ebbs every six hours, and they try to make full use of them.
At times, we would work 36 hours continuously.
As a result of years of rough life on the sea, body eggs are common among the fishing folks.
Many of us suffer from arthritis in different parts of the body.
My shoulders hurt. Arthritis affects my knees.
They can be so itchy at night that it feels like worms are crawling in there.
I have to get up and run for a while to relieve the discomfort.
I cannot stand up after sitting for a while.
All three of us have pains both in our shoulders and knees.
I asked Wang Daojing whether he could hold on to the traditional way of living.
What else can I do?
I received little education, nor do I have special skills.
After that failed attempt, I don't have the courage to take risks anymore." Wang answered with a hint of wistfulness in his eyes.
Ernie living on the sea has made him look older than his age.
That failed attempt he mentioned refers to replacing their small boat with an expensive big one when their fellow villagers competed to do so a decade ago.
We had been using the small wooden boat my parents -in -law made for us.
Back in 2014, many young people in the village bought large vessels and expected to earn more money.
We followed suit, sold our small boat, and bought a big one, spending all our savings and taking a loan from the bank.
It cost us 500 ,000 yuan and was twice as large as the previous boat.
However fishing is an unpredictable business and they suffered big losses almost every year ever after.
We lost one million yuan over four years.
But this makes some good money at certain point.
In one year, we even made a total of 900 ,000 yuan.
Yet we still could not make ends meet.
Fishing needs, temp workers, diesel fields, all cost money.
Workers' salary is a big expense.
They work for us, and it's unfair to hold back their wages at the end of the year.
So we went to the bank to take out more loans.
We even resorted to loan sharks out of desperation.
60 -year -old Wang Yujiao, Xiaoyu's father -in -law and veteran fisherman, said he objected to their decision to buy the bigger boat from the very beginning.
Larger boats generate more expenses, and we didn't have the experience of running larger boats.
Besides, the ocean is not an inexhaustible resource.
The catches have been reducing.
His son Wang Daojing added that their fish catch nowadays was only half of that of his father's time.
At the end, 80 % of the villagers who switched to larger boats ended up deep in debt, including my two sons.
Some villagers even took a big loan of 4 -5 million yuan." No one living on fishing in the village is free from dead.
Weaving a fishing net with two other women, a fellow visitor added at a seafood store by the harbour.
I noticed there was nothing on sale in the store after months of fishing ban.
All of my three sons are in debt.
The eldest one sold his apartment in the city to pay the bills.
Xiaoyi and her husband were among the first to change back to their small wooden boat five years ago.
After going back to the small boat, all our earnings in the following years were used to pay the interest.
It was several hundred thousand yuan each year.
Despite her busy schedule, Xiaoya managed to learn new things in her spare time.
She created a TikTok account and has started to share her fishing life and sell her catches to her 83 ,000 followers.
She has accumulated over one million likes.
My followers would buy half our catches at retail price.
We sell the rest to dealers.
At first, my husband was against me, making videos, saying that people would gossip and we should focus on fishing.
But my father -in -law has been very supportive.
It turned out to be pretty successful.
Hongguang New Village is one of the last three villages still clinging to the traditional way of living at the mouth of the Yellow River.
Village head Dong Zai Lian said they don't have farmland.
Fishing is the main source for living here.
Dong Ying is a young city established in the early 1980s.
Its land area has been increasing as the Yellow River deposits large amounts of sediment as it flows past.
However, the soil is highly saline, and not arable.
All you see around estuary are patches of wheat, ponds and saltmarsh.
Taking out the fishing ban period and freezing winter days, we can work on the sea for five months every year.
The cost of fishing nets, labor and boat maintenance increases year -on -year.
If they get lucky each worker could make 100 ,000 yuan annually.
Labor cost is really high.
700 yuan a day. Mostly only my husband and I are on our boat.
We work on the sea for 1 to 10 days each time.
It depends if the weather allows, and the fish are active, we stay longer.
But the yields vary.
When the catches are not satisfactory, they also choose to work longer for more.
Very few women of my age go fishing nowadays.
I am the superwoman.
Hello sweetie. Can you pick me up tomorrow mum?
School is over in the morning.
Xiaoyie is a teenage boy.
Daddy and I are going out to the sea, sweetie.
But we just have a two -day break.
When will you be back?
We'll be on the sea for three or five days or maybe longer… The high tide arrived.
A fleet of over 100 boats sailed into the sunrise.
Fireworks will lead up as blessings for a new expedition.
Xiaoyu picked up her mobile phone and began to film on the boat for her TikTok followers.
She told me her family has already paid back 3 quarters of their debt.
If everything goes well, all the rest will be paid off in two weeks.
Thank you for coming to the
