ZHANGJIAJIE N YANGTSE CRUISE D7 (Morning) APRIL 2009

 DAY 7

9 April 2009 Morning

River Cruise cum Shennong Stream shore excursions

During the night, Yangtse 1 sailed through Xiling Gorge. In the morning, we had buffet breakfast and the ship docked near Badong Yangtze River Bridge. 

We switched to a smaller sightseeing boat sailed to Shennong Stream

As the boat and sailed through Shennong Stream we felt the charm of the gorge, the cliffs and the spectacular views of the mountains and the emerald river.

As we sailed further upstream and more inland,  the gorge become narrower and shallower, we had to  switched to smaller rowing boats to travel upstream. The ship was rowed by a couple of strong boatmen.

 

We returned to ship and continued westward to White Emperor City. Along the way, we sailed through spectacular Wutang Gorge and really admired the beautiful and breathtaking scenery.

Some scenes captured on video

 (From China Discovery) Shennong Stream between Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge on the Yangtze River is a popular shore excursion site, highlighted with the tranquil and primitive natural landscape, mysterious history, stories and folk customs about hanging cliff and trestle road in the past, and other interesting local culture.

Shennong Stream (神农溪), a 60 kilometers’ small tributary of the Yangtze River. It originates from the south hill of Shennongjia that is regarded at the “No.1 Peak in Central China”, and located on the border between Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge.

On both banks of Shennong Stream, emerald mountains rise continuously and windingly, with diverse features of magnificent, elegant, strange and precipitously, which forms four distinct gorges, namely Longchang Gorge, Parrot Gorge, Mianzhu Gorge and Shennong Gorge. Besides, drifting on the local sampan and appreciate the hanging wooden coffins are must-enjoy highlighting activities at Shennong Stream.

Suspended Coffins.The burial of hanging coffin is a burial ceremony of ancient Ba people who are the ancestors of local Tujia ethnic group at Shennong Stream, having a long history of over 2,000 years. It is said the higher the coffin is hung on the cliff, the better official position and prosperous live the children of the dead people would get, which is because the world “coffin” and “official position” share the same pronunciation of “Guan” with the in Chinese. At present, if you visit Shennong Stream, you could find some very old coffins hanging in the small cave on the steep cliff at the gorge. However, the mystery of how ancient people put and hung and so heavy coffins up there has not been solved yet.