China's floating fishing cities: The wooden houses that are home to 7,000 'gypsies of the sea' who refuse to conform to modern living and want to remain on the ocean

Ancient fishing people in China have built a village on water home to thousands



The Tanka people, named 'gypsies of the sea', live in floating homes and seafood farms




This community in southeast China is home to 7,000 fishermen refusing to conform to modern lives, remaining in their traditional floating homes on the sea.

The Tanka people, also called boat people or 'gypsies of the sea' can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty where local fishermen settled on their vessels to avoid wartime chaos on the mainland.

The floating fishermen's village is located in Ningde City in southeast China’s Fujian province.

Working the waves: Named the 'gypsies on the sea', the fishermen in Fujian lives by the same traditions as their ancestors

Whatever floats your boat: Wooden houses and seafood farms build a water community in Ningde City in southeast China

Before the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, the ‘gypsies of the sea’ were not allowed to go ashore or marry the people living along the beach.

Everything from weddings to funeral ceremonies were instead held on the boats.

In recent years, with the help of the local government, the fishermen have started to build houses along the shoreline.

However, many of them prefer to still live out on the sea on their floating homes as is their people’s tradition.

Nautical life: A boat navigates in between the seafood farms of the fishing village