XIAPU, FUJIAN PROVINCE, SOUTH EAST CHINA

Xiapu, is a coastal county in northeast Fujian facing the East China Sea. Everyone here is involved in the production and harvest of oysters. Vast tidal flats are covered with bamboo poles, floating rafts and suspended ropes where oysters grow in clusters. Entire villages depend on the cultivation and the selling of oysters. Life here unfolds at the rhythm of the tides. Villages sit close to the shorelines and families worked the sea for generations. 

shrimp drying on a suspended circular net while a woman is sorting oysters in an outdoor seafood processing area
man wearing an embroidered jacket cleaning and sorting oysters at a wooden table in a rustic workshop.
Elderly men gathered around wooden tables inside a traditional Chinese teahouse watching television,
a Chinese woman in red clothing repairing a red fishing net using a small tool, with blurred fishing gear in the background
elderly man resting his head on his hand, illuminated by soft light against a blue wall
An old man eating at a wooden table inside a rustic brick kitchen filled with pots, baskets, and household items
elderly man sitting on a bench in a narrow traditional alley lined with wooden houses, red lanterns and a tangle of electric wires
A coastal chinese fishing village with tiled rooftops overlooking a bay filled with aquaculture poles and small fishing boats
Aerial view of vast geometric red and blue aquaculture buoys.

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