China Diary -- Part 26 River People

The Yangtze is a major commercial artery and as such is heavily traveled. There are a lot of boats plying the waterway and they come in all sizes and shapes. The most common though are shallow-draft, canoe-like vessels. They come in a variety of forms but share a basic design.

Salvaging a floating package.


A one-man craft. Note the terracing of the river bank. Not one square meter of arable land is wasted.


Sheltering from the rain beneath a cliff.


Hauling in a catch.


There are lots of barges on the river.


Lots and lots of them.


You can see them tied up along the shore beneath the villages where their crews live.

Or even an isolated home.


But often they are themselves home to river people who live and raise their families on the water.


And then there's this, the fastest craft on the river -- at least I didn't see anything else in its class.