Catching mosquito larvae in the Qing River gives buzz of financial certainty

Every summer, about 100 farmers from Zhoukou in Henan province travel to part of the Qing River in northern Beijing to catch mosquito larvae, which is ground into feed for aquarium fish. They camp in tents along the river as they collect and sell the insects. Gong Yanhua and her husband say they were the first to take up the work. But it's not without risk. During the interview, employees from the local water bureau arrived and sent four men wielding sickles into the river to force the catchers from the water.

They said it was for our own safety. There's a dam 100 metres upstream, and it's the rainy season. They said it would be dangerous if workers at the dam, unaware we were working in the river, released water. But we have done this for more than a decade. We're all aware of this and can run fast when it rains. Is there any job that is 100 per cent safe? Don't construction workers fall to their death once in a while? The bureau employees made their first visit a couple of days ago, and the second the day before yesterday. They asked us to get out of the water, and we did. But today they threatened to cut our bags with sickles. We are neither robbing nor stealing. Why should they destroy our means of livelihood?

Seventeen years ago my husband learned from a migrant worker from Shandong that mosquito larvae hidden in sludge can be used to feed fish and sell at good prices. The worker taught him the technique, and he made 20 yuan a day. Later he asked me to join him and introduced the business to his brother, who later invited his brother-in-law. One relative invited another, and we have about 100 now. We were all very poor back home, so we came here to make some money.