# Hi from China



## Firefly1934 (Oct 27, 2021)

Wow- great post and very interesting. I especially like what looks like that Texas flag off the stern!


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## SS06 (Apr 6, 2021)

Welcome


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## bbnuser (5 mo ago)

Firefly1934 said:


> Wow- great post and very interesting. I especially like what looks like that Texas flag off the stern!


Yeah, good eye. 😉 I'm the only boat on the water with a foreign flag. Also the smallest (pleasure) boat on the water. All my buddies in the boat club have big center consoles or pontoons and they just chuckle when I pull up in my 3.2 meter jonboat. But hey, the first rule of being in the boat club is: have a boat! I can also go much further than they can, nobody else can fit under the bridges or into shallow water like I do. Well, people who have jetskis can. Anyway, if people are interested I can post some photos of what the canals are like.


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

assume you are a Texican living in china. I have read that china has gotten increasing less hospitable to foreign workers and wonder about your perspective on this. and yes, I would love to see some pictures of the countryside and people.


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## fishnpreacher (Jul 28, 2018)

Welcome to China from Ga!


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## Firefly1934 (Oct 27, 2021)

Yes- keep those photos coming and welcome to you from Texas!


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## jchristy07 (5 mo ago)

Welcome!


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## The Fin (Sep 28, 2021)

bbnuser said:


> Hi everyone, I heard about this forum from The Hull Truth. I've been using them for a while, and they're good, but very heavily biased towards big boats, the bigger the better. It's all 300hp engine this and 50 miles offshore that. I bought a 12' aluminum jonboat off Taobao and powered it with a 7hp outboard. That didn't work too well, the boat barely made 8 knots and wouldn't get up on plane. The local marina had a 15hp engine sitting around and I bought it off the owner for ¥3000. Now it does 18 knots on plane, much better.
> 
> I bought the boat to get into and explore the local waterways. It is a profoundly different experience from boating back home. In the States it's all about fishing, skiing, going out to the sandbar, etc. Here, none of that exists. The waterways in my town are canals, left over from the old days when boats were the primary method of transporting goods and food from the countryside into the city. Before trucks, an oxcart was the only way to move on land, and oxen eat a lot. There is also a wetlands area south of the city which is a lot of fun to buzz around in.
> 
> ...


Interesting post! Makes me realize all the nearly unlimited boating options that we have here in the US. Welcome!


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## eightwt (May 11, 2017)

He might not be able to discuss much as his posts are probably monitored.


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## bbnuser (5 mo ago)

eightwt said:


> He might not be able to discuss much as his posts are probably monitored.


Yaknow, this is why I usually hide where I live and never speak of it online. People have these off-the-wall ideas about China and project whatever they're thinking onto my posts. I've spoken of China here because it's on-topic, the locale I live in makes a big difference in my boating. People will say something like "just order a new prop off Amazon" without realizing that there is no Amazon and recreational boating is so rare that the supporting infrastructure is almost nonexistent. I can't even find a battery powered anchor light on Taobao.

If you must know, I use a VPN so my connections are encrypted until they reach overseas. Nobody here cares what you say in English. And I can talk about all the politics I like, unlike most people I've actually read Xi Jinping Thought. I just don't want to because it has nothing to do with my jonboat. 

Sorry if that comes across as pissy, but I get this often. Or people will ask if I eat dogs or some other similar horror. No, this is east China, that's a southern thing. As a palate cleanser, I'll show a bit of what it's like on the water here.









Water gardens, a common sight in the canals. These are not purely decorative; the flowers are a special type that pulls pollution from the water. This, however, does not detract from how lovely they are.









This area is famous for its beautiful covered bridges. Move over, Madison County.









Canal barge at a loading dock. 









One of the interior locks that control the canal water. Nearly impossible to fit under unless you have a flat boat like mine. There are larger locks that grant access to the Ou, the big river that flows to the sea. I once got caught in one, a story I'll tell someday.









One of the common hazards of boating here: an aerator fountain. These keep the water from becoming airless and stagnant. This is well and good but there are a few that block travel. This one, if you look carefully to the left, can barely be passed if you kill the engine and use paddles. They output a *lot *of water so even poking the boat under the fountain for a few seconds can soak you or your accessories.


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## SS06 (Apr 6, 2021)

Great pics...thank you...keep it coming


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## Sheepdogg (Sep 10, 2021)

Welcome


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## MikeChamp12 (May 17, 2021)

Welcome. What kind of fish live in them there waters? Looks impossible to sight fish. Is all the water that dirty around there?


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## bbnuser (5 mo ago)

The only fish I've seen is the Asian carp (silver carp) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_carp

Maybe there are more but that's all I'm aware of. They like to stick close to the banks of the canals so that's where the fishermen put their lines. Thank goodness, if they fished center channel I'd have tangled the prop on their lines many times. 

The water is brown because it has soil suspended in it. I'm from bayou country so that don't bother me none. What does bother me is the pollutants, runoff, and people who use the canals as a trash can. People just throw things in the water without a thought. In the wetlands the water is cleaner as it runs off of a nearby mountain, but it's still brown. 

Another common sight are dragon boats! You see them all the time training for the races.


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## faroutman (4 mo ago)

Very cool.


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## deep7roots (Jan 25, 2009)

Welcome!


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## jay.bush1434 (Dec 27, 2014)

Howdy from Galveston. Very cool posts, keep them coming.


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