China - Yangtze River (Shennong Stream)

Our second outing on the Yangtze was up a small tributary called Shennong Stream. In order to make it up the stream, we had to switch to a much smaller boat. This made the scenery around us even more impressive...

When we started heading up the stream, we happened to look up to see a couple of... acrobats???... random people with a death wish???... you decide. As far as I know, these two people RIDING A BICYCLE across the gorge on a wire weren't actually part of the trip, they were just enjoying the thrill of it I guess.

When you look closer, you can actually see that one guy was dangling below the bicycle.

This gives you an idea of the scale of some of the mountains. The boat in the picture is similar to the one we were on for this part of the trip.

Some local fishermen

This is a picture of a hanging coffin. These coffins are a source of mystery to the Chinese. At various locations on the river, there are coffins that have been wedged into crevices on the cliffsides. These coffins were placed there anywhere from 1000 BC to 400 BC to help protect the remains from beasts as well as to bless them eternally. The mystery comes from just how the ancient people were able to get the coffins placed in these crevices. It would take too much manpower to build a mud ramp and there is no evidence of stake holes drilled into the cliffs. The current theory is that they were lowered into place with long ropes, but it is still up for debate.

A closer view of a coffin. The coffins themselves were often carved from one peice of wood.

As we neared the source of the stream, we had to transfer into smaller boats carrying around 15-20 passengers, rowed by a crew of 5.

When we approached the rapids, the crew were no longer able to row the boat and were forced to get out and pull the boat along. Remember that it was around 35 degrees at this point... After we made it to the head of the rapids, the crew got turned the boat around, got back in and tried to avoid crashing into the rocks as we rushed back downstream... (and yes Jess, they did a better job of it than I could).