![](https://pages.vassar.edu/2024-china-liase-workshop/files/2024/03/IMG_5957-1024x768.jpg)
In the morning, we attended a lecture from Professor Xia at CCNU on the crayfish-rice agricultural complex. The CCNU campus was very beautiful and I was ready to stay for much longer, but we quickly hopped on the bus and drove to our next stop.
![](https://pages.vassar.edu/2024-china-liase-workshop/files/2024/03/IMG_5967-1024x768.jpeg)
On March 4 we left Wuhan and arrived in Qianjiang where we had lunch at Lobster City. The image above shows a sculpture of a crayfish that stood in front of the restaurant complexes. The sculpture stands about two stories high and is surrounded by plastic rice plants in a fountain. Behind the sculpture are new apartment developments.
Lobster city and the other crayfish restaurants were recently built as a summer tourist destination and as a way to develop Qianjiang’s crayfish based tourist economy. It felt very empty since March is during the off season and we were some of the only guests in the restaurant.
![](https://pages.vassar.edu/2024-china-liase-workshop/files/2024/03/IMG_5970-1024x768.jpeg)
After lunch we drove to the Fanwan Lake National Wetland for Birds. At the preservation we attended a lecture on the wildlife in the park and technology used to monitor wildlife activity.
-Lydia