Lanzhou (China), men using skin rafts on the Yellow River

Print 1669 c1: Fa-Tze - or skin rafts used on the Yellow River in Kansu [Gansu] province. Print 1669 c2: 'Fa-tze' skin rafts on the Yellow River near Lanchow [Lanzhou], capital of Kansu [Gansu] province, China. Silk Road, N.W. China.China. Skin RaftsTravel magazine photo caption: Small rafts on the river. The smaller rafts are used largely for the local transportation of vegetables, grain and other products of the farm. The raft at the right which carries two men and eight heavy bags of grain shows what heavy loads these flimsy craft will support. Caption from Harrison Forman's book Changing China: Skin rafts, identical to the ones used by the Huang Ho rivermen for centuries before Christ, today carry the bulk of freight from the Great Northwest to the Peiping-Suiyan railhead at Paotow [Baotou] in Inner Mongolia, a distance of over 700 miles. These are one-man rafts. Some of the larger can carry loads up to 20 and 30 tons.Travel. (May, 1934). Rafting on the Yellow River. Vol. LXIII, No. 1, p. 27-29, 49.GrayscaleForman Nitrate Negatives, Box 1