渤海湾:中国对虾只恋这片海

The Bohai Bay:Chinese Duixia(Prawns) Were Only Attached to This Sea Area

渤海湾的大对虾学名叫中国对虾。出口到国外，也有称之为东方对虾的，是中国特有的海产珍品。为什么叫对虾呢？因为从古到今，中国北方的沿海居民历来习惯以“一对”为单位出售这种大虾，渔民也常常以“多少对”来计算捕获的成果。久而久之，“对虾”的名称就约定成俗地流传了下来。

The prawns in the Bohai Bay is called Chinese Duixia(pairing shrimps).Some are exported abroad and called oriental Duixia.It is unique Chinese seafood.Why are they called Duixia? Because from the ancient times to date the seaside residents of north China are used to selling this prawn in pairs and the fishermen often calculate how many pairs they caught for measuring their fruits.As time goes by the name of Duixia goes down.In A Dream of the Red Mansions,a novel written in the Qianlong Reign of the Qing Dynasty.Xueqin Cao mentioned in the 53 rd chapter titled 'The Ningguo House made a sacrifice in the ancestral temple and the Rongguo House had an evening dinner in the Yuanxiao Fesitval' that Jinxiao Wu.head in charge of the Ningguo farmlands came to Beijing to offer sacrifices and his list to Zhen Jia said: '...prawns in 50 pairs and dry prawns for 200 jin...' From it we can see prawns were measured in pairs in the middle of the Qing Dynasty over 300 years ago.The Chinese prawns are a kind of migratory shrimps that migrate between China's Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea for generations without going to other sea areas.It is the so-called 'attachment to the old places.' In spring from the end of March and the beginning of April,when the water temperature rises the prawns would migrate from the middle of the Yellow Sea,where they spend their winter days,to the Bohai Bay.In May they would proliferate and lay eggs in the Bohai Bay.In June the new bora little prawns would flow from the shallow sea to the deep sea with the tides and grow while sloughing.They grow so fast at an alarming speed.After the ecdysis for over ten times the new born prawns become as big as their parents at the end of August and the beginning of September.Therefore the shrimp flood in the Bohai Bay starts from the end of August every year.In my childhood memory the fishing and aqueduct administrations in Yantai opened the Bohai Bay in August 20 every year and issued the shrimp fishing certificates to the fishing boats,which symbolized the official start of the autumn shrimp flood of the Bohai Bay.