Rafting on the Li River

This is the type of raft we rode up the tributary of the Li.

Just one of many boatloads of happy Chinese waving and shouting Hello! How are you!

A cormarant fisherman. The birds were tethered to the boat, the man would slap the water with an oar and one of the birds would dive in and instantly pull out a big fish (one to two feet long!). The bird couldn't swallow the fish because he has a metal ring around his neck. The fisherman gently (or not so gently) eases the fish out of the bird's gullet and puts it in the basket. Then the whole process starts again.

A scene on this beautiful river.

The next morning we were scheduled to take a raft trip up a tributary of the Li. This too was a surprise. I knew the river would be beautiful, and it was, and I hoped it wouldn’t be too touristy, but it was—in a good way! The river was full of happy Chinese doing exactly what we were doing—enjoying a beautiful morning drinking in the scenery and having fun. Every boat we passed would wave and cry Hello! Many if not all of the rafts had, in addition to the boatman, a lady singer dressed in local costume singing traditional river folksongs in their eerie high-pitched voices. Of course, we couldn’t understand the words but one can imagine that the words must be tearful accounts of unrequited love and sad tales of loss and unfulfilled dreams. Just like country and western, I would think.