Starting from the southern slope of Shennongjia, which is hailed as "the No.1 peak in Central China", Shennong Stream flows among remote mountains throughout the year and meets the Yangtze River at the southern end of Longchang Gorge. Meandering for 60 km, the stream is accompanied by layers of peaks and knolls, which create the Shennong Gorge, Parrot Gorge and Longchang Gorge, which are all very peculiar, exquisite and precipitous. Along the stream are dotted with various cultural landscapes such as ancient hanging coffins, plank roads built along the cliff, primitive small boats and the customs of Tujia ethnic minority.

Biological Resource along Shennong Stream
Yangtze Cruise along Shennong Stream

Situated in the subtropical zone with a monsoon climate, Shennong Stream features varied climates subject to the change of elevation, with the temperature ranking from -21 to 38.5 degree Celsius in different seasons. The variety of the climate makes it a natural gallery with rich biological resources. In the primeval forest at the headstream of Shennong Stream, there still live many rare animals like white snakes and white snub-nosed monkeys. Among all plants, Davidia or dove trees are most arresting. According to interrelated data, this kind of trees died out in most places on the earth after the Ice Age.

Boat Tracker Culture along Shennong Stream
Boat Tracker along Shennong Stream

Boat Tracker Culture refers to the old tradition in the Three Gorges area that trackers tow a boat in the water by holding the towropes on their shoulders. Today, this tradition has almost been extinct, but that in Shennong Stream is still persisted and becomes a living fossil of the local boat tracker culture.

Ancient Ba Culture along Shennong Stream
Ba People is not one of the 56 ethnic groups of China but an ancient tribe moved to this area in ancient China. The ancient Ba people settled down here and created the astonishing ancient plank roads on cliff and hanging coffins by hands. Today, their offspring still live by Shennong Stream and is known to the outside world as Tujia ethnic minority. Inheriting their forefathers’ characters of being frank and good at singing and dancing, Tujia people still keep that prevail until today. Crying singing on wedding is another unique folk custom of Tujia people to show brides’ sorrow at leaving their own parents and family. It was seen as a skill and a girl who could sing a touching crying song was considered to be a good bride.