Shanghai Summer Series : Stories and Photos by Huy Huynh and Steven Leigh

Summer Palace Fish Story by Steven Leigh
continued from last issue's Beijing Boat Blues
http://www.aaezine.org/articles/vol15/15N1ShanghaiSummerFun.shtml

Co-intern and fellow SBU student Huy Huynh and I, along with our guide Peng Zhang, continued in our boat along our way around the perimeter of the lake at Beijing's Summer Palace. In the distance were temples scattered on the hill peaks and fisherman on the sides of the bank enjoying the cool weather. As the three of us approached a group of fisherman with their lines in the water, I was wondering whether we should turn away from the bank and go around the small area where they had cast their lines.

Suddenly, something flew from somewhere in front of the boat, bounced off the front of it, and nearly landed in my lap. We caught one!

I still don't know who was more frantic and confused – me or the fish – but we both weren't very happy about the situation. It flopped around beneath our feet for a while as we were laughing and yelling, trying to decide who was going to pick it up and toss it back into the lake.

I looked up and noticed the bank of the lake was about thirty feet in front of us and yelled to Huy (keep in mind, he was sitting directly to my left) that we needed to change course. Well, we tried and… we ran aground. How were we going to get this boat with its poorly-charged battery and new passenger off the bank?

The fishermen and other people on the bank were staring at us, something I had come to accept - street vendors all called me Harry Potter. We rocked the boat back and forth until eventually we came off the lakeside and traveled backwards for a short while before continuing to solve our first problem. Peng Zhang told us a story his grandfather used to tell him about doing good deeds and saving life when you can.

Finally, Peng picked up the almost unconscious fish and threw it back into the lake. We arrived at the dock from where we first started our journey about thirty minutes later. The laughing still hasn't stopped. You can read more about our antics in upcoming issues of the Zine until next summer when we find another 'we went to Hong Kong but didn't get off the train' experience!

Photos of our fish and our Shanghai summer with side trips to Badaling, Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and other places are online at the Zine photo gallery:
http://aasquared.org/gallery/shanghaisummer06