31-May-2006 -- 46N – 130E Heilongjiang (黑龙江), China

Line Hunting Date: May 31, 2006

Northeastern China at its best

Heilongjiang is the most northern province of the three north eastern provinces of China. It is best known for cold and long winters with serious amount of snow. During the summer time, it is one of the most pleasant places to be in China.

We were on our way to Boli (勃利) county from the capital city Harbin (哈尔滨), with an early start at 6 am to accommodate the stop for line hunting. As it turned out, there were two stops along the way. The other stop was for a special fish meal as breakfast. Our host, Yan Chen is very much into good food, and insisted that we sample the special fish dish only offered at a restaurant in a little town about half way in our journey. Around 8.30 am, we had this heavy meal of two very large fish stewed in soy sauce, not exactly the best breakfast food. Only Yan Cheng seemed to enjoy it thoroughly and polished both fish off.

About 10 am we turned off the main highway and started heading toward the confluence point on a dirt road with about 11 km of GPS distance to go. We stopped the car by a fish pond behind a village and started on foot toward a beautiful open valley with 1.1 km remaining. The last 400 meters required us to climb up a gentle hill with pine trees. About 150 meters before we reached the confluence point on the hill side, Yan Cheng decided to turn back citing his shoes were too slippery. Clearly, his strong suit is dinning, not hunting.

This particular confluence point is located on a slope overlooking farmland and another village about 1 km away. The village we started the hunt is called Xin Chun Cun (兴泉村), and the one we saw on the hill Xin Nun Chu （兴农村）. The area belongs to Jia Mu Si city (佳木斯市) The green and gentle landscape coupled with blue sky and high clouds was a classic scenery of a good part of central Heilongjiang.

The line hunting detour took an hour and a half and we arrived Boli county seat right before noon time. The local host led us straight to a restaurant next to a large reservoir a couple km out of town. We were treated with a lunch with seven different fish dishes all freshly caught from the reservoir that day. This of course, made Yan Chang very happy. Indeed.

Rating of this hunt:

Degree of Challenge:

2 – a nice and pleasant hike except for one hunter who did not have the proper footwear (1= very easy - drive to the point; to 5= a death march – glad it is over)

Scenery:

3– Very pleasant farming area with rolling hills – typical of Northeast China during the summer (Scale: 1= not interesting at all; 5= take your breath away)

Culture-social factors:

2 – Typical rural area of Northeastern provinces (Scale: 1=dull; 5= most stimulating)