My Books > The Great China Quest > Challenge 4: FAILED!
Challenge 4: Catch a Fish.
We thought China’s biggest salt water lake, Qinghai Hu, would be the perfect place to catch a fish. Located 3,200m above sea-level on the Tibetan plateau, it’s home to an abundance of fish. Surely this would be our easiest challenge yet…
Well, the only problem was, once we arrived we discovered that anyone found fishing in the lake faced 7 years imprisonment. Even more strangely, it seemed that no-one was even supposed to talk about fish. The local restaurant owners immediately put a finger to their lips and shooshed anyone who so much as asked if they sold them.
Clearly something fishy was going on and we needed to find out what.
We had dinner with a local Tibetan man who wouldn’t give us his name but insisted that we just call him “Shushu” (Uncle) in a small town beside the lake, a place known only as “One Five One”. He told us that the government has imposed a strict ban on fishing to protect the nearly extinct population of “yellow fish”. People still risk catching them during the night and there’s a clandestine place for restaurant owners to buy the fish and sell them secretly to tourists for high prices, but for anyone caught, the punishments are severe.
So we didn’t catch a fish and we didn’t even try. And in case you’re wondering, we didn’t even eat it for dinner. Instead we enjoyed a plate of yak meat with potatoes.
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5 replies on “Challenge 4: FAILED!”
Sorry comments were blocked on this post. Don’t know how that happened but it should be fixed now.
A.B.,
I was told by the shopkeeper that that’s the pelt of a wolf (which I’m assuming is a Tibetan wolf). The tents are called yurts, I think. I don’t know much beyond that.
Don’t be upset.I didn’t know there were strict rules on catching a fish there.I figure it’s a good way to protect endangered creatures.Animal fur in the pic was weird.What did it use for?Besides,what do u think of the yak meat with potatoes?I haven’t had that before.
wont you have a 2nd chance when you travel to other cities?
good guy! but i also want to know why another try in other cities?