Swan Guardian and Swan Lake

The Oriental Swan Lake is situated in Chengshan Town of Rongcheng City, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Weihai City, Shandong Province in eastern China. The 6-square-kilomter lake is where the salty sea water and fresh water merge. From November to April every year, swarms of swans stay there for the winter.

Yuan Xueshun was born by the lake in October 1959. In 1973, he entered Rongcheng Number Six Middle School which is just a stone’s throw from the lake. In 1974, Yuan joined a swan observation team at the school. He bonded intimately with swans in the winter of that year. He went to the lake to watch the beautiful and precious birds every weekend. He fell in love with them. More often than not, he stayed by the lake for the whole day. After graduation from high school, he found a job at a local fishing company. His passion for swans did not wane a bit. He visited the lake every day and watched and jotted down his observation in his logbook.

An evening in February, 1981 was his first close encounter with swans. He heard some unusual noise near where he stood. He investigated and found a swan had got its neck into a fishing net and could not disentangle itself from the messy net. The swan struggled in vain to free itself. The bird tugged fiercely; feathers fell off and the neck was cut by the net. Yuan saw its windpipe had exposed and blood was flowing. Yuan approached the swan trying to free it from the net. But the frightened swan killed itself when Yuan was only three meters away. Yuan wept for the bird. The death of the swan dealt him a heavy blow.

This experience was most harrowing to Yuan. He quit his job and decided to do his best to protect swans in the lake. He set up a home appliance repair shop near his home to earn some money. He managed to find time to save injured swans. Sometimes there were too many swans to be saved and he simply locked up his shop. In order to save swans more easily, Yuan wore a striped camouflage suit all the time so that he could set out in any emergency.

One snowy day, Yuan Xueshun was patrolling the lake when a shipyard worker came to him, saying a swan on the lake might be in danger. Yuan Xueshun knew that swans would gather together in bad weather to shield against snow and wind together. If a swan goes astray, it will get killed by such bad weather. Yuan hurried to the spot and saw a lonely swan moving away from a bevy of swans. It was moving in the wind toward the sea. Yuan jumped into the lake and began to move toward the swan. When he was about 50 meters from the swan, the bird became aware of the approaching man. It tried to fly away. Yuan stopped moving. The shipyard worker thought Yuan might have run into trouble. Yuan suddenly imitated a swan’s song and began to flap his arms. The swan looked at Yuan, totally confused. Yuan was able to approach the bird this way. Whenever the swan felt frightened, Yuan danced a swan dance. At last, the bird allowed itself to be scooped up and held tight by Yuan. By this time, many people had stopped to watch this rescue operation. As soon as Yuan got to the shore, people rescued them both. Someone wrapped Yuan with an overcoat. The swan was calm. It even helped clean Yuan with its beak.

In December 1984, Yuan got married. His repair shop now had an additional name: Family Center for Rehabilitation of Swans. The house has eight rooms and he gave himself enough space for everyday life and the rest was given to swans. Pretty soon, the house was full of swans. Answan eats 4 kilo food a day. In summer, Yuan cooked a large pot of rice and mixed it with 25 kilograms of grass and fed swans. In winter days, he bought cabbage, radish and apple. Sometimes he bought 10 kilograms of minnows. This daily operation for injured swans was so costly that occasionally Yuan found he did not have money for his two daughters’ tuition fee at school. Swans that stay at his house learned to cope with the man and his family.

In March 2001, Yuan Xueshun had two swans at his house. They had not been able to recover totally. They did not go with the swans that had taken off to the north. In May, the two swans were ready, but the weather was prohibitive. They would probably get lost on their way to the north. Yuan Xueshun contacted the state wild swan preserve center and learned that the two birds under his care were from Xinjiang. It just occurred to Yuan that he should personally take the two birds back to Xinjiang.

But Yuan couldn’t afford the expenses. After learning Yuan’s wish and his financial situation, the local authorities decided to finance the trip. In June 2006, a special team flew from Weihai to Xinjiang. Local people were touched by the people in Weihai City who protected swans that flew from Xinjiang to Shandong for wintering.

November 18, 2003, Yuan Xueshun attended an award-granting ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, receiving an environmental protection award issued by Ford Foundation.

On February 23, 2004, with the approval of Weihai Civil Affairs Bureau, Yuan Xueshun set up China Swan Protection Network.

The new challenge Yuan Xueshun now confronted was the real estate development around the Swan Lake. Despite his strong objection, some projects proceeded and devastated part of the ecological system. Yuan Xueshun and his network took action. They surveyed deterioration around the lake and reported the data to media. The media coverage caused uproar across the country. State authorities paid attention and came up with solutions. The development zones around the lake built water-introduction channels for the swan habitats around the lake.

In 2010, Yuan Xueshun and the village where he lives set up a rescue and aid station in the west of the lake. The station near a wetland covers an area of 3,000 square meters divided into two sections. One section provides injured swans with necessary aids and helps these swans recover. The other section is something like a mid-way house where healthy swans will stay for a while and get themselves adapt to wilderness before they can get back to nature. After the station became operational, Yuan moved six injured swans from his home care to the station. At present, the station can provide help up to 100 swans.

Yuan’s dream is to keep a civilized distance between swans and man. He wants the Swan Lake undisturbed so that swans can live there peacefully and tourists will not disturb them.