Shennong Stream was a shore excursion for which we were told to wear life jackets. We assembled in groups in the main lobby, met our guide Jasmin, and rode the ferry to shore. There we were met by the inevitable army of peddlers, selling everything you can imagine -- maps, books, postcards, fossils, small statues of Buddha, water, beer, trinkets, etc., etc.

Tables on the bank of Shennong Stream, dedicated to separating tourists from their disposable income.

These portable souqs are a feature everywhere tourists can be found. They must sell something sometimes, but I doubt that they sell much here. We were led to our boat, seated, and cast off and into the river and soon into the stream.

These were wooden "peapod boats" (Their name, not mine). They are long -- tapered at both ends, wider in the middle -- and of shallow draft so they resemble peapods. There are positions for oars at the front and posts for rudders on both the bow and stern. Behind the oarsmen is a post from which hangs a long coil of a rope made from braided bamboo strips, and four loops of ordinary rope padded with cloth.

Each peapod boat had six boatmen, local farmers who do this to supplement their income. These are not the usual "Han" Chinese, but members of the Tujia minority. They used to ply the river naked and the popular postcards sold to tourists show them thus; nowadays they wear shorts, shirts, and woven rope sandals.

Rope sandals worn by the boatmen who ply Shennong Stream.

Our peapod was one of about a dozen with passengers from the MV President, and we were only one of three hotel boats anchored offshore. Other peapods filled with orange-vested tourists were going up and down the stream with us, as this seems to be a very popular outing.

Many boatmen are thus employed in the tourist trade. We also passed some boats which looked to be legitimate working boats.

Peapod boat without tourists, presumably used to transport goods and people to villages upstream.

There are a couple of villages upstream which receive their supplies this way.

All this will be gone after the closure of the dam and the flooding of the Yangtze next year.

After we were shoved off, the boatmen took up positions, with two oarsmen rowing with quick (and, to my eyes, not particularly skillful) strokes and the rear rudderman steering. The other three men sat and rested.

In the broad, relatively slow current of Shennong Stream near the Yangtze, two of the boatmen row, one (in the back) steers, and the others rest.

The trip passes through Longchang Gorge, around 3 km long, where Shennong is a swift flowing stream for most of its length. The initial part, which could be rowed, was quite short. Once we got to the fast currents, the oars were shipped and ropes came out.

One of the boatmen (also called trackers) would take the long bamboo rope ahead, uncoiling it as he did so. He and three other trackers each put one of the shorter padded ropes over their shoulders and attached them by wrapping them with a toggle around the bamboo rope. They would then walk (or stagger) along the shore, heaving the boat along.

Trackers pulling the peapod boat upstream by heaving with padded ropes on a long rope made of braded bamboo.

Meanwhile, long bamboo poles with metal spikes were wielded from the boat to fend off rocks. This is a winding river so there are several places where we had to cross. At these places, the pulling ropes were detached, the bamboo rope coiled, all swiftly stored, and the fending poles and rudder used to quickly cross the stream.

Crossing the swift current of Shennong Stream, ropes are stowed and the rudder and long fending poles are used to propel the peapod boat to the other side.

Then, if there were a shoal handy, the tracking sequence would begin again.

Trackers pulling the boat along a narrow ridge by a cliff face.

The river was a hive of activity with boats coming and going, upstream and down, full of orange-vested tourists of all nationalities.

Numerous peapod boats on a narrow stretch of Shennong Stream.

The downstream boats very swiftly ride the current, with long rudders out fore and aft, the rudder men busy and the pullers resting.

Front rudder employed as a peapod boat runs downstream.

Boats were accompanying us upstream and their trackers were often pulling level with our boat (as our trackers were with the boat in front of us). There were a couple of bottlenecks where boats had to shoot across the current, and there we sat and waited for our turn.

There were stretches of the upstream trek where the water was deep and the cliffs came right to the water's edge. In these places, iron rings had been cemented into the rock and long stretches of nylon rope were stretched loosely between them. The upstream end of the rope was tied to a ring whereas the downstream end was tied to an old orange life jacket, the easier to be seen and picked up.

Here three boatmen would pull the boat along the rope, while the others wielded bamboo poles with iron hooks at the end to grasp crevices and pull, and using the fending poles to keep the boat off the rocks. Even so, there was lots of evidence of rock-rub on the cliffs at water level.

In this way, and in slow stages, we made our way upstream.

To the Finale.

Jerry & Linda
Al Ain, United Arab Emirates