Fishing & hunting festival kicks off in Jilin

The 21st Chagan Lake Fishing and Hunting Cultural Tourism Festival kicked off on Wednesday in Songyuan of Northeast China's Jilin province, with thousands of tourists witnessing the spectacle of fish leaping over the water.

The first catch of the fishing season set an auction record of 1,699,999 yuan ($243,779.86) at the opening ceremony of the festival on the frozen Chagan Lake.

The buyer, a domestic dairy enterprise, paid the record sum as a donation to the continued maintenance of the lake, including protecting its ecological environment and promoting the sustainable development of the lake's fishery.

The winter fishing ritual on the lake that dates back to the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) had been identified as one of China's national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.

The name Chagan, Mongolian in origin, means sacred, white or pure. So the lake is also referred to as Holy Water Lake. It is a freshwater body that covers more than 500 square kilometers — one of the 10 biggest freshwater lakes in China.

During the following two months of the fishing season, it is expected to harvest more than 2 million kilograms of fish and the fishing spectacle will attract 1 million tourists, achieving a tourism revenue of 790 million yuan.

Xiao Kui contributed to the story.