The mountains of Qiandao Lake are colorful. The volume of living trees and forests in the whole area ranks first in Zhejiang Province. Looking around in Qiandao Lake, a scene of greenery meets the eye on every side. It's this greenery that makes the mountains gentler and plumper, instead of being abrupt and rugged. While the local forest coloring project adds colors to the mountains along the Qiandao Lake-Circular Road and the main attractions in the lake. Whenever the seasons change, the red autumn leaves and yellow ginkgo leaves turn Qiandao Lake into a colorful world.
The water in Qiandao Lake is sweet. It's highly unlikely that tourists from all over the world will have any doubts about the water quality here. The continuous flow of running water from the Xin'an River, coupled with the almost harsh protection of the environment for the development of tourism, makes the overall water quality evaluation of Qiandao Lake continue to be excellent. The reason why the water products from Qiandao Lake are fresh and mellow without any earthy smell is that the water they live in is excellent. Sometimes tourists from Shanghai are teased with goodwill by the locals: “Even if you buy our best tea leaves, you won’t be able to have its best taste, because the water in Shanghai isn’t good.” Tourists from Shanghai dispute: "It isn't a problem anymore, because now we have Nongfu Spring". After saying this, everyone laughed. Everyone knows the slogan: “Nongfu Spring is a little bit sweet.” The water source of Nongfu Spring is right here in Qiandao Lake.
In Qiandao Lake, the most popular and traditional thing to do is to go on a lake cruise and have an island tour. In the Central Lake Area, Yueguang Island, Longshan Island and Yule Island are like pearls, scattered around the lake. Touring these islands alone will take a whole day. Don’t ever miss Meifeng Peak. “Without viewing the islands from Meifeng Peak, you won’t know the true color of the islands”. You can take a cable car upwards with the wind along your side to Meifeng Peak Sightseeing Platform. It is the best vantage point to ascend high and view Qiandao Lake. The sunlight penetrates clouds and casts an orange glow over the lake. Scale-like silvery light appears on the water surface of the lake. If you are lucky enough, you can see over 300 islands of the over thousand islands dotting the lake. The scenery is very majestic. Nearby, there is a special island shaped like the back of a turtle with a pine standing proudly on it. It is truly remarkable. If you like the relaxing and calm touring way of going on a lake cruise to tour islands, then you are in the right place, because there are also Huangshan Peak, Tianchi Island, Mishan Island, Osmanthus Island and other islands in the Southeast Lake Area. Each of these islands has its own characteristics and you will find that no two islands are alike.
Among the many restaurants around Chun’an, the majority of them have the word “fish” on their signboards. We have chosen a two-story restaurant on the banks of Qiandao Lake. The decorations of the restaurant are new and it's spacious, bright and clean. The slogan, "to Make a Fish with a More Complete Value" at the entrance is very eye-catching.
The fish head in a large casserole served with a deep-fried dough stick looks very appetizing. The waitress looks simple and honest. She said it's called Gold Deep-Fried Dough Stick. When she cut the stick into different pieces, she recited, "Once the deep-fried dough stick is served on the table, a heaven-sent fortune comes; A cut promises you ten thousand liang* of gold, a cut helps you get rid of bad luck, and another cut wishes you good luck being with you all the time; The gold stick is as long as 38 cm, implying that everything goes smoothly in your life and you'll have a prosperous year. ”
*The word "liang" is a Chinese unit of weight, which is equal to 50 grams.
Eating the deep-fried dough stick that is dipped in the fish head soup while listening to the chanting, I started my good days of having fish every meal in Qiandao Lake.
About the origin of eating fish heads, there are many meaningful stories all over China. Some quote the story of "the Paragon of Women's Virtues" to explain the origin of eating fish heads, which goes, the mother loves her child and gives the best parts of the fish to her child while she eats the fish head only; while others say: "In ancient times, after kidnappers took a hostage, they would usually give the hostage a fish to eat and observe which part the hostage would choose to eat first. According to them, those who picked the fish belly were mostly from poor families and they couldn't get much money from them, while if the hostage chose to eat the fish head, the hostage was probably from a rich family and the income of this single kidnapping was very promising."
Leaving aside the legends, the local people in Chun'an said: "When I was a child, the fish heads in Qiandao Lake were fed to pigs. At that time, the fish in Qiandao Lake were cheap silver carp and bighead carp, and they were the "tool fish" put into the lake by the government to purify the water. The transformation of the "tool fish" into a delicacy is the result of more than ten years of hard work by Chun'an native Wang Jianmin and his team: They artificially bred bighead carp fry, raised them to about 250 grams before putting them into the lake. The annual stocking amount of fish is strictly measured, and the fishing is also strict. For example, a fish must be raised to a weight of more than 3.5 kilograms before it can be fished. There are also strict requirements regarding the size of the holes in the fishing nets used to capture them so that small fish can be automatically screened out; afterward, the fishing team will conduct a second-time screening, and the young ones and the ones with insufficient physique will be put back into the lake to grow.
I asked: "How long does it take for the fish to grow to 3.5 kilograms?" The restaurant owner told me: "About 7 years." I made a quick calculation in my mind: For 7 years, the fish have been drinking Nongfu Spring freely and eating plankton and pine pollen as a "supplement" every spring. The value of the fish is really extraordinary. The authentic Qiandao Lake big head fish has the "Chun" brand logo and is a state-owned asset operated by the local "Qianfa Group". In the early years, the "Chun" fish was not for retailing; instead, it directly cooperated with major restaurants in the area. Those authorized restaurants would hang the green "Chun" brand logo in a prominent position in front.
fishing, cooking, tourism, and cultural creation" has been adopted and replicated by over 20 lakes in 15 provinces - this fish head indeed wins me over.
When choosing a restaurant, besides looking for the authorized "Chun" brand restaurants, you also can't go wrong by looking for the sign of "One Hundred Counties, One Thousand Dishes" in Zhejiang Province.
"One Hundred Counties, One Thousand Dishes" is a "food pageant" launched in Zhejiang Province in 2018. Each county first selected 100 local dishes and then selected the most representative top ten dishes (ten bowls) from the best. The Highland Dried Pork of Jiangjun Qiandao Lake Fish Head Restaurant (姜君千岛湖鱼头馆) was one of the selected.
Shanghai people are familiar with Jiangjun Qiandao Lake Fish Head Restaurant, which has opened 8 branches in Shanghai. The owner, Jiang Renjian, is from Chun'an County and went to Shanghai to learn how to cook at the age of 19. The reason why he named the restaurant "Jiangjun" is not only because his surname is “Jiang”, but also because “Jiang” is the homonym of "general" in Chinese. "I want to be the 'big general' of Qiandao Lake Fish Head." He said.
From my personal taste, I really recommend this restaurant's Wild Croaker Steamed with Scallion Oil (葱油蒸野生白花鱼) and Qiandao Lake Dried Bamboo Shoot Pot (千岛湖笋干煲), which are delicious and tender.
If Jiangjun Fish Head Restaurant is all about the taste, then Qiandao Lake Urban Lake Boat Feast is more about the atmosphere. The urban lake area at night features faint mountain shadows and the yellow lights far and near. When you get on the boat, you’ll feel that you have become an ancient scholar. You can go boating in the water, watch the scenery, listen to music, recite poetry, and drink tea.
Qiandao Lake is famous for its clear and clean water, which is protected by the people of Chun'an with great care. All ingredients for the boat feast have been cleaned and prepared before being brought onto the boat. The kitchen on the boat is set on the barge. Cold dishes are served first and hot dishes are served after the boat reaches where the barge is. The kitchen on the barge looks no different from the kitchen of an ordinary restaurant. The only difference is that the kitchen on the barge is equipped with a special sewage collection cabinet. The kitchen swill and sewage are discharged into the urban sewage pipe network through the collection cabinet. The management of the kitchen swill and sewage is extremely strict and not a single drop of the fluid is allowed to enter the lake."
In addition to the boat feast that wins with cleanliness and elegance, the "Prince Valley Manor" we visited a few days later also allowed us to see the specialties of Chun'an food again.
Prince Valley Manor (王子谷庄园) is a place name. There is neither a prince nor a manor. In fact, it is just a farmhouse restaurant. Many people come here to enjoy rafting in summer. An old couple operates the restaurant, with the wife in charge of the cooking, and the husband responsible for serving dishes, receiving customers and cleaning.
The farmhouse is decorated with plastic flowers. Stoves, cauldrons, firewood, and colorful beverage bottles are not unusual. What’s unusual about them is that they are neatly arranged and spotless. The firewood stove is very clean and you won't find any stove ash, kitchen dirt, or oil stains on it.
The labels of all beverages, seasonings, and wine bottles face outward; the scissors with an opening of 60° are hung to the left; the pot handles on the shelves are uniformly slanted sideways at 30°... The sanitary requirement in the restaurant is so harsh that it almost has the same mysophobia as the Yuan Dynasty painter, Ni Yunlin.
My travel companion brought the book "Riding the Iron Rooster" by the famous travel writer Paul Theroux, in which there is a part about his observations about Chinese people, which I remember very well: "The Chinese look young until their mid-twenties and then they begin to look very haggard and beaten. A certain serenity returns to their features when they are in their sixties, and they go on growing more graceful and dignified and become not old, but ageless. ”
I have specifically asked about the names and ages of the couple and I learned, the host is called Shao Chungen, 57 years old, and the hostess Wang Jianmei, 54 years old. What this couple presents is the kind of calmness, nobleness and self-confidence described by Theroux in the book. Shao Chungen said: "We never went to chef school, and we created the dishes by ourselves." I just wish I could eat all of the dishes of the restaurant and I am willing to pay for this strict cleanliness.