Travel along the Yellow River
Brook Le Van

brook@sustainablesettings.org

In nine months I traveled on and along the entire Huang He (Yellow River) - 4,000 miles - from its source as a potable trickle at 15,000 ft on the Tibetan Plateau to its thick churning polluted mouth at Bo Hai (The Yellow Sea.) Along the way I lived with and worked with a great diversity of the incredible riparian cultures from Tibetan nomads, far too numerous ethnic minorities to mention here and the the dominant Han peoples. My mission was to understand something of the roots of Chinese history and current culture by studying and building indigenous river craft and navigating the river on the handmade rafts and boats I built with local craftspeople. In all I traveled by foot, goatskin and log raft, tire innertube rafts, ferry, hand hewn wooden hulled diesel fishing boats, yak, camel, bicycle, motorcycle, jeep, local bus, train....