Chagan Lake


Chagan Lake (Chagan Hu) is a lake in Mongolian Autonomous County of Qian Gorlos, Songyuan City, Jilin Province of China. The name "Chagan" is from Mongolian, meaning sacred, pure or white, so the lake is often referred to as Sacred Lake or Holy Water Lake by local people. The Lake is the known as one of China's 10 top fresh water lakes. Covering an area of 420 square kilometers, it measures 37 km in length from south to north, and 17 km from east to west. The lake is known for traditional winter fishing that dates back to prehistoric times.

Chagan Lake Winter Fishing Festival


Chagan Lake Winter Fishing

The annual Chagan Lake Winter Fishing Festival is held to remember the old winter fishing tradition. On the first day of the festival, the locals hold an interesting ceremony call "offer sacrifice to the lake, wake up the net". The activities including perform a Mongolian religion dance, read Buddhist scriptures, sing eulogies, drink farewell wine and so on. The fishermen place many articles of tribute on the ice to pray for a good harvest of fish. Then they drill many holes through the thick ice and then place net or fishhooks under the ice. The net and its catch is then hauled out of the largest hole by means of a capstan turned by Mongolian horses. The Lake set a Guinness World Record of a single net that yielded 104,500 kg fish in 2006, and broke its own by 168,000 kg of fish in 2009.

Chagan Lake Winter Fishing China

Chagan Lake is the only place that preserves the oldest Mongolia fishing method. In 2008, Chagan Lake Mongolia ice-fishing was designated as a national intangible cultural heritage of China by the State Council of the People's Republic of China. Chagan Lake is the best winter destination for your winter holiday. Here you can enjoy ice fishing, taste the delicous fish cuisne, see the locals how to catch fish and snatch many snap nice pictures about the fish, fishermen, sunset, beautiful lake scenery and tourists.

Chagan Lake China

The winter fishing in Chagan Lake usually starts in late December and ends in mid-February of the next year, almost the same as the Harbin Ice Festival. Chagan Lake winter fishing is usually bundled with Harbin Ice Festival by some tour operators. If you are going to Harbin for the Ice Festival and have a Harbin side trip as well, we would highly recommend this well-designed tour package:

4-day Harbin Ice Festival & Chagan Lake Winter Fishing Tour

Entrance Fee: Free

Opening Hours: 8:00-18:00

Address: The northwest part of Qian Gorlos Mongol Autonomous County, Songyuan County, Jilin Province

How to get: You can first take long-distance bus from Harbin (4 hours) or Changchun (2 hours) to Songyuan City and then take the special tourist bus at the front gate of Menbali (literally Dream Paris, near the Wulan Street) or the Passenger Bus Station of Songyuan City to the lake.

Tips:

1.  If you go to Chagan Lake for watching ice-fishing, please note that the fishermen place the fishing net in early morning, and the net and its catch is usually hauled out of the ice holes at 11:00 - 14:00. 

2. Some local restaurants offer different style fish cooking service in Chagan Lake. If you want to taste the fish from Chagan Lake, you can buy a fish and cook in a restaurant.

Winter Fishing Ceremony in Chagan Lake Jilin China

Chagan Lake Ice Fishing Festival

Chagan Lake

Chagan Lake Winter Fishing Songyuan


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