Where did the immense wealth brought by the flood come from

This stretch of water drew crowds of gold rushers, who fished frantically for three months only to leave disappointed. Cai Yunlou also wanted to cash in on this windfall, and while others stood by watching, he ultimately made a million in wealth fall from the sky. Others admired his good luck, but he said that behind every wild idea lies careful planning again and again. On this expanse of over 200,000 mu of water and grassland, see how Cai Yunlou of Zhaoyuan County, Heilongjiang Province, made wealth come knocking.

Fisherman: Pull hard, come on, lift it a bit, come on, come on, tilt it up, tilt it up, higher, lift the bottom, lift the bottom, 1, 2, 3, good.

Reporter: How many jin of fish is this?

Cai Yunlou: We brought in a lot (of fish) today.

Fisherman: Yes.

Cai Yunlou: How many jin of fish did we bring in?

Fisherman: Must be over 300 jin.

His name is Cai Yunlou, and he is the owner of this stretch of water. As soon as one net of fish came up, we noticed that Cai Yunlou's fish have a characteristic: they vary in size, and the species are all different too.

This big fish is a bighead carp, and it must weigh 15 jin.

This grass carp also weighs as much as 17 or 18 jin.

The big fish can reach over ten jin, so how small is the smallest fish? We made a discovery in the mouth of a catfish.

Cai Yunlou: Look at the very inside of this (fish), look, there's still a small fish.

Reporter: Really, look, this (fish) is still eating a small fish in its mouth.

Cai Yunlou: You can see it just by holding it with your hand. Pull it out slowly with your hand.

Reporter: So it eats these small fish, right?

Cai Yunlou: Right, look, look.

Reporter: Really.

Cai Yunlou: There are still wild miscellaneous fish in its mouth.

The small fish are so small they become food in the bellies of the big fish. All kinds of fish can be seen everywhere in Cai Yunlou's water, and to Cai Yunlou these fish are like something picked up for free.

Cai Yunlou: We don't feed them, we never feed them.

Reporter: You don't feed them?

Cai Yunlou: Look at how big our water area is, how could we feed them.

Reporter: You've never fed them.

Cai Yunlou: Never fed them. Never mind feeding, you'd be doing well just to catch them. We neither stock fry nor feed them, because these fish are all wild fish that come into Cai Yunlou's water following the river current. The water in front of us covers over 20,000 mu, and Cai Yunlou has 6 more stretches of water this large. Every day over 3,000 jin of all kinds of fish can be caught, and the water is Cai Yunlou's treasure bowl.

These stretches of water made Cai Yunlou a local celebrity, because from the very day Cai Yunlou obtained the water, 1 million yuan fell from the sky.

We neither stock fry nor feed them, because these fish are all wild fish that come into Cai Yunlou's water following the river current. The water in front of us covers over 20,000 mu, and Cai Yunlou has 6 more stretches of water this large. Every day over 3,000 jin of all kinds of fish can be caught, and the water is Cai Yunlou's treasure bowl.

These stretches of water made Cai Yunlou a local celebrity, because from the very day Cai Yunlou obtained the water, 1 million yuan fell from the sky.

Cai Yunlou: At that time, overnight, I became a millionaire. There's a British film called "The Million Pound Note," and he also became a million pounds overnight, but I became a million RMB overnight, and from that day on I had a dream.

How did so much money fall from the sky overnight, making Cai Yunlou, an ordinary person, suddenly worth a million? This claim is no exaggeration.

In August 1998, continuous heavy rain caused the Nen River to flood. The flood swept across Zhaoyuan County by the Nen River, and more than a dozen stretches of water appeared locally. Many people did not even have time to rebuild their homes before they spotted a chance to get rich in the flood. Because everyone was certain that what came rushing along with the river water must be countless wild fish.

The livestock breeding farm where Cai Yunlou worked also formed a stretch of water over 20,000 mu, and gold rushers swarmed in.

He Fenglin: There was a lot of competition. After seeing the water rise in 1998, by 1999 they started contracting it out.

People even bid to contract this stretch of water, and the contracting fees grew higher and higher. For a time, quite a few fishing teams came to this water. But soon people's enthusiasm for fishing cooled, because no one could catch fish. Everyone wondered: where on earth had the fish gone?

From September, when the flood receded, all the way to December, 5 groups of people in succession tried fishing in this stretch of water. The longest stayed here for over a month, and even the livestock breeding farm sent people specifically to fish.

Cai Yunlou: The government also organized fishing teams. They said that after the flood, there was nothing to do in winter, so they also organized fishing teams and went to the area to fish, but caught nothing.

Jiang Fa: All those fishermen from the surrounding area went in. After going in, they couldn't catch fish here. One group came and went, then another, and none of them could catch anything.

The water that people had fought over at first became a wasteland no one wanted. But at this point, Cai Yunlou started calculating. By rights there should be fish here, and he decided to give it a try. In April 1999, Cai Yunlou quit his job at the livestock breeding farm and contracted this stretch of water at a very low price. But after a month passed, he was just like everyone else: he had not seen a single fish.

Xu Zhiliang: He was worried sick. When there are no fish, who wouldn't be worried? The money was invested, but no fish could be caught, and the investment was quite large. He himself had no money either. The money to contract the water, the labor costs, the logistics costs, after putting it all in, he always felt he would never see any return.

Cai Yunlou: In fact, the pressure inside me was hard for others to imagine, because you know you carry a greater responsibility for your family, with the lives of a whole family weighing on you.

Cai Yunlou had intended to grab a bargain, but unexpectedly his own life also became trapped in this stretch of water. In order to catch fish, Cai Yunlou hired fishing teams, offering to split the money half and half if fish were caught, and to pay the fishing teams daily wages if no fish were caught. After contracting the water, Cai Yunlou had no money left, and everything was bought on credit. If he still could not catch fish by the end of June the following year, Cai Yunlou would face bankruptcy. At exactly this critical moment, a miracle happened.

Jiang Fa: At the time I was right on the boat, and that day the fish started coming. Every boat was full; basically all 15 or 16 boats were full. We didn't even finish hauling in that day's fish, there were just that many. This went on for nearly half a month, with fish like this every day. It was too amazing. I remember that day when I came back by boat, as soon as I got off the boat I was so excited that before even reaching shore I took off my clothes and started waving them. When everyone saw me waving, they knew the fish had come.

Xu Zhiliang: Around the 20th of June, after the first boat of fish came out, the boss was on the shore holding his head and actually crying, he was so excited. The boss's state of mind, let me tell you, it wasn't like now when he's worth hundreds of millions; back then even a few hundred yuan was good money.

Cai Yunlou: I hugged my General Manager Jiang and my fishermen, and the tears came down. Even today when I talk about it, this matter still excites me very much, because that day really was the day my life began.