Yangtze River - Cruising China's Shennong Stream

All Yangtze river cruises in China offer different excursions along the way. One such side trip is the one to the Shennong Stream, where you go on small “peapod” style rafts and navigate through the shallower and ever narrower waters of this side arm of the Yangtze.

You are completely dwarfed by the towering peaks raising tall on both sides of the stream.

We first disembarked the Cruise Ship and boarded a Ferry which brought us into the opening of Shennong Xi. The Ferry trip took about 45 minutes.

From here, we boarded the “peapod” style rafts, each manned by four “trackers” which brought us to the narrower and shallower waters of the stream.

At the real shallow points, the trackers had to literally pull the boat. Same thing when it was time to turn around.

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This isn’t much of a “quiet” trip, there was so much activity and commotion. But by all means, in the midst of all this action, do enjoy the scenery and nature, the clear water, which after cruising the brownish waters of the Yangtze for a while, it’s quite a refreshing change.

The cliffs on both sides are magnificent. Watch out for wild monkeys trampling among the trees and “hanging coffins” that were old burial sites from the Bai people more than a thousand years ago.

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You will notice in these pictures that the water level had been lowered by some ten meters. This is done during the rainy summer season to control the floodings in the area.

If a trip to the Shennong Stream is not possible due to the water level being too low, then cruise ships will go to the Daning River as an alternative.

This is where the Little Three Gorges are and the scenery is just as spectacular.

After this wonderful adventure, we boarded back our ship, relaxed a bit as the boat continued on to the last of the Three Gorges and finally on our way

Through the Locks at the Yangtze River Three Gorges Dam

You can follow the course of the cruise in this Map of the Yangtze River as we started downstream from Chongqing to Yichang.

Return from Shennong Stream to Yangtze River

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