Yes, a Bean on the ground is not a common occurrence in Jinshitan. They do fly over during migration from time to time. Yes, the sea-farming ponds are what is left of the area by where the new bridge was going in. Unfortunately 80% of that area looks like the surface of Mars at the moment and I was told by a guy who lives there that in 2013 the entire area will be history. I'm sure the main river channel will have nice concrete bottom and sides soon. 3 Golf Courses, a main movie production area (Hollywood China?), and housing upon housing. I see there is a marsh in the middle on the plan but I'm sure it will be completely unusable because of people everywhere.
I've said it so many times but the waterfowl in this area is as jumpy as can be encountered. I am taking photos with an 800mm lens and still cropping almost to the point of disfiguration. It would be impossible to identify the Shoveler above as such with the naked eye. More people in area will mean more stone throwers, horn honkers, etc..
I was sitting behind a hill watching the 5 Whooper Swan that were in the area a few weeks ago and a small van suddenly appeared on the dirt pond-side road. When the driver saw the swans, he sped up and layed on the horn, forcing them to leave the pond for the time being. I walked out onto the road to intercept the guy on the way back and stood in the road so he was forced to stop. I then simply asked him what he was doing. He was clearly embarrassed and lost some face and drove off with me screaming the question again at him. There are no farms in the areas where the swans would be a nuisance (there's nothing planted yet anyway). I believe the person just wanted to have some fun scarring swans. This is not as serious (swans will learn) in areas where there is an abundance of swans, but such is no tthe case here.
Areas like Laotieshan are protected by law but Jinshitan is not so fortunate. Basically this area is being made into one of the much needed holiday locations in the country. I would love to get involved and steer that into some eco-friendly holiday activities. There are multiple sites here that could use a nice self-guided board-walk with educational oportunities about the life in the area. Instead all the development seems to be making concrete statutes of just about anything (Jinshitan related or not), concrete parking lots, and completely demolishing the natural beauty of the area for housing. There is a nice self-guided board-walk into the geo-park but that is RMB 80 a person and therefore only available to the rich (that's how they keep the number of people down as well).
It seems one of the common themes to be introduced to the area (and many other places) is that a natural landscape is beautiful. Areas don't need any signs of people to be beautiful. Right now, it seems the majority of development doesn't understand this.
