- More on Hunan Geography
- Last Five Cable Ferries in Western Hunan
- "On the fore of the ferryboat stands a small bamboo pole, with a movable iron hoop hanging on it. An obsolete cable connects both shores of the stream. When ferrying guests, the ferryman snags the iron hoop on the cable and pulls the cable with his hands to propel the ferryboat slowly to the other side." This a scene depicted in the novel Border Town by Shen Congwen (a Chinese writer born in a small town in western Hunan, 1902-1988) written in the 1930s. For a long time now this piece of writing has triggered people's imagination for cable ferries in western Hunan Province.
- Tip: Cable ferry (Chinese: ÀÀ¶É pinyin: l¨¡ l¨¡ d¨´),) refers to a means of transportation guided across a river by cables connected to both shores. Previously wooden boats were used for the purpose, but its modern version employs large steel boats, also called tractor tug, which is applicable on a smoothly-flowing river with a width of less than 180 meters.
- Huitong County of Xiangxi Tujia & Miao Minorities Autonomous Prefecture is located in southwestern Hunan, with two rivers running through it from south to north, namely, Qushui and Wushui. Huitong county has preserved till now five large steel cable ferries, which are
- the modern equivalent of the old cable ferries, including Gaoyi Ferry, Hujia Ferry, Tanmu Ferry, Huangmao Ferry, and Baozhao Ferry. The bamboo poles and iron hoops are not used any more either, but the boats are still guided and propelled across the river by cables.
- At the beginning of the last century, west Hunan saw pedestrians and wagons along the water routes all the time, while cars were hardly seen. This was an era when water transportation prevailed. Cable ferries were sufficient to meet the needs of the people living on both sides of the stream.
¡öTranslated by Zhang Chang
¡öEnglish script edited by Wishal Khalid
¡öChinese script edited by Zang Jie
¡öDesigned by Sun Weijie
¡öMade by George.Jiang