Bamboo Rafting down the Yulong River to Yangshuo, Guilin, China (Pictures and Video)
photos and video taken on Saturday February 10th, 2007 by: Gary Isse
Another, more popular way, of returning to Yangshuo after bicycle riding to the Yulong River is by Bamboo Raft. In fact, you can normally bamboo raft all the way back to Yangshuo from practically anywhere on the river. Unfortunately, because I came in the winter, the water levels were pretty low and we could not raft the entire normal route; there were also plenty of areas where it was a bit difficult to pass as it was, but overall, it was still a great experience. And in case you are wondering, YES, you can get wet so remember to keep your feet up if you don't want to. Things are safe though as long as you keep them well-elevated and off the raft itself.
Below are some pictures and here is a video clip of parts of the ride down. The audio is of a local person of the Zhuang minority group I recorded singing a song for us.
Unfortunately, they do not generally come with the raft, unless you're lucky enough that your driver is the singing type.
By the way, here's a funny story. I had asked about bamboo rafting down the river the day before when I was at Dragon Bridge. I spoke to a couple of people and was able to bargain the price down to 100 yuan from 150, however, I decided not to take the ride because it was getting late and I wanted to eat before heading back. The rafting generally takes at least 3 hours. Anyway, the next day I still really wanted to do the bamboo rafting so when I woke up I made arrangements with the hotel; but they were sticklers and would not bargain with me at all on the price so ended up paying them the full 150 yuan. I took a bus this time which took about 30 minutes and cost 4 yuan. When I arrived to the Yulong River stop, who is there to pick me up? The man who served me the delicious fish the day before. And where do you think he took me? To the lady I was negotiating with the day before. I felt pretty stupid when she saw my ticket and saw I paid full price. Anyway, I realized then that this whole operation at this part of town is all run by a very small group of local people. In fact, my raft driver is the nephew of the guy that caught my lunch.
Dragon Bridge dates back to the 1400's.
A view of the homes and businesses by Yulong River.
A view of daily life by the river.
Here's the place I ate at the day before. Feel free to stop by raft too!
It's amazingly quite here.
Practically every peak has a name. This middle one is Frog Hill.
See how low the water is. At some places we were scraping rocks.
Here it's not so quite anymore.
He's pulling us in backwards.
You've got to lift your legs if you don't want to get wet.
There's lunch. Pick which one you want. Yes, those are animals. I've seen so many ducks on the river that I ended up going with the duck.
I really wanted to back out by now but I thought it would be too rude so I watched as he grabbed a duck from the ceiling and took it into the kitchen. Here it is after hacking away at it with a butchers knife and throwing some sauce on it. The taste is good if you can get over everything else. If you like jerky though, you may love this.
By the way, getting back to Yangshuo from here took about 10 minutes on the back of the motorcycle and cost 10 yuan. During the high season, there is enough water in the river to get you all the way back.
