What Keeps an Island Going

A China National Radio reporting trip in 2019 followed fishing activity around Dalu Island. Its account describes gear being hauled and a mixed catch that included small crabs, shrimp and sea urchins. The detail brings fishing down from an industry label to a task: retrieving gear, sorting what comes up and handling different animals.

The 2019 outing captured one day’s work around Dalu village, which belongs to Gushan town in Donggang, within the wider Dandong region. Its mixed catch connects the fishing livelihood to several kinds of marine animal rather than a single emblematic product.

A 2026 feature describes the island’s sea-blessing activities on the thirteenth day of the first lunar month. Making lanterns, preparing dumplings and staging yangge and dragon dances bring household work and public celebration together. The hopes attached to the occasion concern both livelihood and safe return.

The same report names yellow clams and swimming crabs among the island’s seafood. Food and ceremony meet in a place where the sea is a source of work, uncertainty and shared identity.

Dalu’s memorial grounds and statue of Deng Shichang recall the naval battle fought in nearby waters on 17 September 1894, during the First Sino-Japanese War. Deng was a Chinese naval commander associated with the cruiser Zhiyuan. The island gives remembrance a place on land, where the maritime event can be named and commemorated.

The statue brings an event fought offshore into an inhabited landscape on land. Around it, the fishing community’s everyday relationship with the sea continues beside the commemoration of naval loss.

An environmental case study published in 2021 describes an undersea pipeline bringing fresh water to the island and a system for collecting, compressing and transporting rubbish away. Island life depends on these less photographed connections as well as on boats and seafood.

The same account describes removing a sea-cucumber enclosure and a connecting embankment, and replacing a solid quay form with a more permeable one. The intention was to improve water circulation and coastal habitat. In this case, managing the shore required opening some structures rather than building more barriers.

The island’s stories meet at that practical point. Fishing needs a productive sea. Households need fresh water and waste services. A place that welcomes visitors must sustain the conditions on which its residents depend. Dalu’s coast is both a cultural setting and a system that people continually have to manage.