Drifting

Drifting is Chinese for White Water Rafting.
I know what you are saying; “You are supposed to be in China to work – not spend all of your time on these weekend excursions, goofing off, doing crazy things and having crazy conversations with locals, and in general making an American Spectacle of yourself.”
Too bad; we did it anyway.

We arrived in China Thursday night and worked on Friday and then the entire team (now grown to about 15-20 people) combined with us Americans went drifting on Saturday.
We left the hotel at 05:30 AM and drove the 45 minutes to Changsha where we met everybody else. Then we loaded up into a large tour bus and drove another 2.5 hours west of Changsha to what would have to be the actual location for “The Middle of Nowhere” at the Xiaxi River. Beautiful scenery and country side in the foothills of some mountainous region.

You are provided a life vest (yes, they actually had one to fit us), a helmet, and a piece of wood with a wide end that is your “paddle”. You sit in a two person inflatable raft that is maybe 6 feet long, and off you go. Interestingly enough, this was the same day that Charles and Sam’s Scout Troop was headed to the Nantahala River in North Carolina for their annual white water trip. So in essence, I was with them in spirit – because the similarities pretty much stop there.
To understand the river, you have to understand one aspect of the “normal” Chinese person – they don’t swim. Therefore, their exposure to canoeing, boating, or other water sports is pretty much non existent. So to have a water rafting experience, you need a river that doesn’t require maneuvering skill. You need a river that will pretty much push the boat along with out the need for steering and containing “controlled” rapids. This river is pretty small; maybe 15 feet wide and the rapids for the most part are man made with large rocks strategically placed into the water and in several places the river is dammed to form a single drop ramp that is built only slightly wider than your raft that allows you to “shoot” through the rapid (much like the log rides you see at Six Flags or other amusement parks). These were actually very fun drops because they were generally about 10 or 12 feet in elevation at 45 degree angles to provide a big splash at the bottom. I actually tried paddling and steering until I realized the best experience was use the paddle to push off rocks to let the water do the work while enjoying the pinball effect of bouncing through the rapids. This meant several rapids and falls were made facing backwards (I admit, a 12 foot drop backwards is an interesting experience).
My raft partner (one of our financial people) told me that she didn’t swim, and she was a little nervous about the whole thing, so I did try to keep us aimed forward as much as possible. She is very small (5 feet tall, maybe 100 lbs) and had one big rapid where she was bounced airborne which frightened her, but she regained her composure, and ended up really enjoying the whole experience.

The whole ride lasts about 2 hours. The water is clean and cool, but not cold, and being a 94 degree day, it felt great. I did get a bit sunburned on my legs, but not too bad. And of course, at the take out point, there are the many vendors selling food and drinks, so Drew and I enjoyed a cold Pi Jiu while we turned in our equipment. There are showers and locker rooms (its China, so naturally these are available for a fee) where we showered and dressed for the ride back to town. We stopped to eat on the way back (that restaurant is the story for another day) and finally made it back to the hotel at 06:00 PM.

I admit I was unsure about doing this because I was concerned about water quality, but we were in a remote area in the mountain foothills, and it turned out the water was fine and the whole day turned out great! It’s not very challenging and for a 2 hour ride, it was a terrific experience. We all agreed we should do this again.
I don't have a water proof camera, so my pictures are limited to these pictures are before and after shots.