Shennong Stream, a tributary of the Yangtze River, rises in the southern part of the Shennongjia Natural Reserve. It joins the Yangtze at Xirangkou in Hubeis Badong County. With crystal clear water, this steam flows swiftly from north to south through deep gorges. Its natural beauty and local color have attracted the interest of overseas tourists.The boats will raft to a Longchuanhe Village where the Tujia minority nationality people live. They are hardworking and hospitable people and are good at singing and dancing.

The average flow of the stream is 20 cubic meter per second a year. It is an ideal place for drafting tour with a very good experience of adventures without any danger

The Shennong Stream Special Rafting Tour covers 20 kilometers from Mian Zhu (Bamboo) Gorge to Yingwu (Parrot) Gorge and Longchuan Gorge. During the rafting tour, you might see large and small karst caves, home of many swallows, a world of high cliffs, deep gorges, flying waterfalls, three-colored springs, the ancient trestle path the suspended coffin in the cliff, the groups of ancient tombs and marvelous karst formations. Startled swallows swoop overhead, fish swim about in the depths of the water and monkeys play on shore. The natural landscape is fascinating for overseas tourists sightseeing on simple, peapod-like flat boats.

Another striking scene is "Tracking through the Rapids". Trackers begin their heavy work of moving many tons of cypress upstream against a fiercely resisting roadway of water. The irresistible force of the bronze skinned trackers teamwork and cooperation represents the best in masculinity and bravery.

Besides rafting and a sampan tour, you will also be dazzled by the spectacular riverside scenery. Like the neighboring Three Little Gorges in Wushan County, the ancient plank path runs along the river, mysterious ancient coffins hang high on the cliff, and wild monkeys run under the primitive trees and bushes. Dark green clear water, dark green trees, and dark green mountains along the stream provide an once-in-a-lifetime vista which disappears into the distance. This is another special example of Chinas rich natural beauty

Rafting Tips

Depending on the character of the river youre running will sort of determine the type of safety approach you take to running that rapid and also itll sort of depend on the cruise you have and the raft guides you have too. A larger volume rapids where there a lot of volume running through the rapids, a lot of waves, but not so many rocks. Pining is really less of an issue. Flipping and having swimmers is more of a concern. On a rapid such as that, youre going to run safety on the fly. Its better to have your rafts close together so theyre able to take care of one another and if they see swimmers from the raft in front of them or the raft behind them, they can react to those swimmers as they work their way down that rapid as a trip. Again, more experienced raft guides would be at the beginning of the trip and at the end of the trip to sort of sandwich the less experienced raft guides in the middle. Another way to run safety is to stop at the bottom of a rapid and setup safety for the less experienced guides as they come down. So you would send the trip leader down first. Have the trip leader pull over to one side of the river. The best place to set up for a throw rope and then signal the rest of the trip down. That way youre controlling the number of guests or number of crew members that you can have in the water any given time. If a boat flips, you only have one boat in the rapid at the time, so it gives your troop leader the ability to rescue those folks, get them to shore, and then setup two people for safety for the next raft down. Both systems work well. You just need to decide which one you want to do before you run the rapid. That way youre best prepared for any eventuality on the river.