Lian Zhou & Lian Nan county, north west Guangdong province

[MrTree]

Last friday I visited Lian Zhou city and Lian Nan county at North West of Guangdong province. China was in a long break starting from 29th April, and I finally managed to escape on 5th May. It's been raining since 2nd May, so my friend and me expected a difficult collecting trip....

Lian Zhou city is about 291 kilometer from Guangzhou, we reached around 1 pm on friday afternoon and we visited the Lian Zhou Underground River.



Well, we didn't expect much as it was a tourist point, and due to the rain, the park cancelled the boat trip in the cave and thus reduced the ticket price (note: no problem bringing the fish net in)..

the flooded jetty


after came out from the cave, we watched some lousy performance but then I managed to took this... hand held 100 - 300 mm...bloody blur...

[MrTree]

We stayed at Dong Pi, the small town only had two hotels, one of them only cost RMB 14(SGD 2.8!!) per room!!! And the other one was RMB 40 per night..we chosed the later but was a terrible one too...

We hired a local who brought us around, and this river is part of the Bao An tributary, which would become Bei(North) Jiang and would eventually join the Pearl river near the river mouth.



there were few streams we didn't dare to step in as both of us don't swim well....



We collected Acrossocheilus parallens and Rhinogobius duospilus here and later collected some Rhodeus ocellatus at the paddy field..



and bonous of the day was this Chinese Rat Snake, Ptyas korros.

[MrTree]

We realised that our driver didn't really know the "wild" so we decided to proceed to Lian Nan county after lunch, which is about 40 minutes from Lianzhou city. This area supposed to have a few underground rivers observed from the map..

And heavy rain welcome us after we arrived at the town. Around 3:30 pm we went to another tourist point, some Yao tribe village..along the way we passed a couple REAL Yao tribe village, and the daily costume was not fancy as all..



arrived at the tourist point, nothing much but the view was excellent...



This old man would ask you RMB 5 to take a pic with him....and obviously this one is free.



some real life Yao tribe women..



back to town, we went to another park to watch a pretty good performance.....hmm..more like a normal trip rather than fishing trip liao..

[MrTree]

Lian Nan county is located at the San Jiang river, and we visted the morning market and saw these fish.

Squalidus argentatus


Spinibarbus caldwelli


Male Zacco platypus on top and male Opsariichthys bidens at the bottom


Discogobio tetrabarbatus


Mastacembellus aff. armatus


Other fish sighted includes

Carassius auratus, Cobitis sinensis, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, Silurus asotus, Clarias fuscus, Pelteobagrus fulvidraco, Hemibagrus guttatus, Rhinogobius giurinus and etc...

[MrTree]

After visiting the market, we came to a small Yao tribe village in the mountains. We met some local villagers and two young men agreed to bring us to a cave. Which is not being developed but there are river in the cave.

Sound not bad, so we devided into two motor bikes and half way started to walk towards to the cave..there wasn't any path to the entrance, so bash all the way..



Some snails found on the rock along the way...



another species with a bit of algae..



after about one hour, we finally reached the entrance..



and got to climb down..the guides were really helpful..

[MrTree]

As we reached the bottom..we had to walk another ten mins to another 天坑 (Sky hole??)...



the rocks were very very slippery



and the REAL entrance to the underground cave was at the bottom of this big hole..we walked about an hour in the cave, one part we had to swim across but we couldn't reach the underground river as we stopped right in front of a waterfall..If we walked any further, then I think I won't be sitting in my house typing this field report today......... we never expected it was so difficult to explore in the cave, didn't have equipments at all...feel damn cold so retrieved immediately..half way back my torch light also finished the battery....

didn't take any pic except this one..at the very begining part.



deep in the cave, I caught a few small crickets...about 1.5 cm SL



the eyes are no longer functioning I think..



at the end it took another two hours to come back to the road....

collected two species of frog along the way..caught in the grassy land so these are actually not so real habitat pic..

Microhyla ornata


and Microhyla pulchra, both can be found in Guangzhou city and even in Hong Kong..


The two guides brought us to their house for lunch and we managed to buy two hand made but USED Yao tribe's hand bag, which is not available in souvenir shops..and we understand that difference village has got their own pattern and size....anyway they were really friendly people...

THE END!

[ranmasatome]

We hired a local who brought us around, and this river is part of the Bao An tributary, which would become Bei(North) Jiang and would eventually join the Pearl river near the river mouth.

We collected Acrossocheilus parallens and Rhinogobius duospilus here and later collected some Rhodeus ocellatus at the paddy field..



and bonous of the day was this Chinese Rat Snake, Ptyas korros.

My 2 favourite shots.. the cyan on this fish is amazing!! so beautiful...

[kuching]

Some snails found on the rock along the way...



another species with a bit of algae..

The one above is slug. (Wow....very unique slug!!!!)

The long snail is very extraordinary too!!! Wowww~!!!

[MrTree]

The one above is slug. (Wow....very unique slug!!!!)

The long snail is very extraordinary too!!! Wowww~!!!

issit? actually it's the tissue growing on top of the shell. And the tissue could be easily removed by touching ONLY! So it was quite disgusting when I touch it and saw the shell appeared.

[MrTree]

Oh..issit because the body cannot fully go back to the shell, and thus slug?

[MrTree]

Side shot of a smaller one...didn't focus well..

see the shell?

going back again this summer..

[kuching]

100% confirm is slug. Slug is evolved from the snail.....still got some shell but not a big part like the snail. all the slugs got shell mostly covered by the skin.....

ur slug is very beautiful!!!

[MrTree]

Oh. ok, thanks.

Didn't know the snails are older.

[bornNeo]

Beautifull !!!

[MrTree]

Beautifull !!!

This area in the distribution range of Chinese Crocodile Lizards(Shinisaurus crocodilurus), it's Chinese name is "Yao Shan E Xi" means "ao Mountain Crocodile lizards".