Text and images (c) Robert Barry Francos / FFotos by Francos, 2014
Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them
Nearly three hours away from Lanzhou, exists what is commonly known as the Yellow River Hoodoo National Geopark also known (by tourists) as the "Chinese Grand Canyon." You drive up into a parking lot and pay the fee, and then get into a small, enclosed bus. It turns a corner and suddenly you are on a switchback heading down toward the town of Longwancun, way at the bottom, where the Yellow River runs along it. At the bottom of the drive, you switch to a kind of open-air car you might find in an Amusement Park, which brings you to the Hongxiang waterfront, after winding through corn fields and apple groves. We had some of the freshest corn I can remember, steamed in a contraption that also heats tea.
While we were eating, we noticed these latticed and flimsy rafts that were on the river, and the storehouse for them was next to where we sat. The rafts are held up by the skinned, sealed and oiled skins of sheep (though they looked like pigs to me) that are filled with air. I said to my partner, "We're not getting on one of those, are we?" She firmly stated, "Oh, hell no." Literally five minutes later we were aboard one, heading down the river for about two nerve-wracking miles. There are no seats on these rafts, so you sit back-to-back for support as it winds along this fast-current river, with a person sitting up front with a hand paddle to guide it, as it wound around a bend to the right. Then a motorboat came by in the other direction, rocking the raft in its wake. I held on to the sticks on either side of my butt, tightly, feeling the greasy skins against my hand. Needless to say, I did not take a single picture when I was on the raft for fear of dropping the camera. When we reached the destination, we entered a valley of rock, but more of that in the next blog.
Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them
Nearly three hours away from Lanzhou, exists what is commonly known as the Yellow River Hoodoo National Geopark also known (by tourists) as the "Chinese Grand Canyon." You drive up into a parking lot and pay the fee, and then get into a small, enclosed bus. It turns a corner and suddenly you are on a switchback heading down toward the town of Longwancun, way at the bottom, where the Yellow River runs along it. At the bottom of the drive, you switch to a kind of open-air car you might find in an Amusement Park, which brings you to the Hongxiang waterfront, after winding through corn fields and apple groves. We had some of the freshest corn I can remember, steamed in a contraption that also heats tea.
While we were eating, we noticed these latticed and flimsy rafts that were on the river, and the storehouse for them was next to where we sat. The rafts are held up by the skinned, sealed and oiled skins of sheep (though they looked like pigs to me) that are filled with air. I said to my partner, "We're not getting on one of those, are we?" She firmly stated, "Oh, hell no." Literally five minutes later we were aboard one, heading down the river for about two nerve-wracking miles. There are no seats on these rafts, so you sit back-to-back for support as it winds along this fast-current river, with a person sitting up front with a hand paddle to guide it, as it wound around a bend to the right. Then a motorboat came by in the other direction, rocking the raft in its wake. I held on to the sticks on either side of my butt, tightly, feeling the greasy skins against my hand. Needless to say, I did not take a single picture when I was on the raft for fear of dropping the camera. When we reached the destination, we entered a valley of rock, but more of that in the next blog.
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| The entrance from the parking lot. |
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| The bus that would take us down to the town. |
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| At the entrance to the switchback. You can get a hint of it... |
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| And down we go. Wheeee. |
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| The town of Longwancun at the bottom. |
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| A bus going up the switchback caught in the side mirror. |
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| At the bottom, switching to the carts. |
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| Riding through the town. |
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| Looking back where we came from. |
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| Seeing the rafts for the first time. |
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| Boiling our corn. |
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| Return of rafts used by those before us. |
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| Carried one handed; would not want to arm wrestle these guys! |
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| The first of our group on the raft. |
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| Our raft awaits... |
