Word: sampans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Without a boat to drag, the walk along the Qutang towpath only takes four hours. A sampan carries us to the north side of the Yangtze, where the path runs some 50 m above the late-summer waterline. About 1.5 m wide, it's paved with well fitting flagstones running westward through light brush. Only a few sections have crumbled since its completion in 1900, a sharp contrast to most roads in the area. Below us are traces of lower trails, narrow and treacherous paths used by workmen who needed to be closer to the river. Short, granite pillars line...
...look down. The jade-green water that laps the shores is slimy to the touch, glinting with an oily iridescence and dotted with tourist flotsam and jetsam of which carrier bags and lumps of polystyrene are among the least noxious. The fisherfolk who invite visitors aboard their sampan settlements with offers of rice wine or bamboo bongs also sell coral and shells stolen from the few reefs that remain. And the grenades and dynamite sticks that you see stored in the cabins below give a blunt indication of the level of respect the fishermen pay to Ha Long...