A Thriving Past

“As we tacked upstream fearsome waves tried to snatch us off the deck. The current was racing. Often, just as we thought we had passed the worst stretch of a rapid, when the poles were raised to be plunged in once more the current would suddenly sweep us back again.

The river was like a fire, it was too ardent, trying every minute to carry us away, as if completely headstrong. The strange thing was that these boat men had artful dodges to escape currents and whirlpools. They demanded on the water for a living, knew the river and its dangers better than anyone else; but in order to survive they were ready at every second to jump into the water. Going through the rapids, forced to drive through the white waves, they had to know how to find a passage through them. ”

Shen Congwen, Recollections of West Hunan

Before modern roads were constructed, transportation in the sheer Wuling Mountains had been dependent on merchants' boats plying up and down the roaring rivers. While traveling upstream, boats often had to be towed by boatmen. A merchant boat fully loaded would weight 50 tons. In order to go through a big rapid, a number of 40 to 50 boatmen from different boats had to work together, towing up their boats one by one up through the rapid.

In 1573, part of the mountain on the opposite side of Gongtan collapsed, with a huge quantity of big and small rocks crashing into the Wu Jiang, forming dangerous shoals that cut the navigation. Only small crafts could be towed up. In the event of this natural barrier, goods coming from the northern Wu Jiang needed be discharged upon arriving at Gongtan's Downstream Wharf. They were then carried by men power to the Upstream Wharf, located 800 meters away in the south, and reloaded onto the boats heading upstream to Guizhou. Raw materials shipped from Guizhou were carried from the Upstream Wharf to the Downstream Wharf in order to continue their journey. Usually, most goods and materials were stored at Gongtan for several days while waiting for a boat for the next stage of journey.

Gongtan become one of the most important transit centers on the Wu Jiang Waterway and won much of its prosperity through a thriving trade and warehouse business. In the beginning of 20th century, Gongtan had hundreds of stores, shops, and business establishments involved in transportation, storage and trade. More than 6000 boatmen and porters had worked there.

Link: Sold down the river.
"Trackers who pulled boats upstream through the Three Gorges are losing their homes to the waters that they long defied By Peter Hessler." (Time Traveler, Fall 2002)