Harvest Day for Chinese Farmers: Seawall to protect fishermen from typhoons

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03:07

September 23rd has been designated as China's inaugural national Harvest Day for farmers. China now tops the world in the amount of wild fish harvested. But working in the sea is not easy. CGTN's Han Peng has visited a small and remote island, and witnessed the life of fishermen there.

In the fall, morning rush hour takes place in the sea near this small island called Xiyang. It's about 10 kilometers east off China's mainland. As the sun rises, thousands of fishermen like Wang Jiaxing are ready for their harvest.

WANG JIAXING FISHERMAN ON XIYANG ISLAND "In the morning, we get up early, it could be 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock. It all depends on when the tide starts to rise."

The ups and downs of the tide bring wild fish to the top of the water. But it takes back-breaking labor to pull them onto the ship. In the net, there are all kinds of fish, shrimps and crabs. But once the ship returns to the shore, Wang will have already sorted them for sale.

"There are plenty of people waiting to buy the fish fresh from the sea. Most of them are middlemen who will then sell them by retail."

It seems a good harvest for these people as well. For thousands of years, fishing has been the only industry on this small island, with just around 12-thousand people.

HAN PENG XIYANG ISLAND, FUJIAN PROVINCE "For most outsiders, this fishing life may be a pleasant escape from the urban hustle and bustle, but for local villagers, there is still another side of the life, which is very different from this tranquility of mother nature."

As one of the easternmost islands in China, Xiyang often takes the first hit when typhoons approach in the summer. Waves are almost like a tsunami, and wipe through the multi-story buildings on the shore.

WANG JIAXING FISHERMAN ON XIYANG ISLAND "Life has been like this since I was born. Actually, it's been like this since our ancestors settled down here thousands of years ago."

With a huge explosion to acquire rocks, a massive construction of a 1,000-meter-long dam starts in the middle of the sea. Huang Luocheng, who works for state-owned China Communication Construction Company, oversees the project. He says the dam costs 60 millions US dollars and aims to reduce the waves for the 12,000 islanders.

HUANG LUOCHENG, PROJECT MANAGER CHINA COMMUNICATION CONSTRUCTION COMPANY "We are working fast to complete the main structure of the dam by next summer. We hope that 2018 will be the last year in which the islanders have to suffer from the tsunami-like waves during typhoons."

WANG JIAXING FISHERMAN ON XIYANG ISLAND "We feel a much stronger sense of security now. We are not forgotten by a fast-growing country."

Fishermen say the beginning of the construction makes this harvest season all the more cheerful. Han Peng, CGTN, Xiyang island, Fujian Province.