Shennong Stream 神农溪

About Shennong Stream

Its visitor experience combines the gorge scenery with interpretation of the boat trackers who once hauled vessels through difficult river sections. Small-boat demonstrations are part of a selected tourism route, not an unchanged transport system operating across the whole valley. Check which sailing is offered: a shorter Luoping trip and a longer tracker-culture excursion reach different stops.

The stream rises at the main peak of Shennongjia (神农架) and has been settled along its banks since at least the Han dynasty, chiefly by the Tujia people. Hanging coffins wedged into high limestone clefts along the gorge attest to this early settlement; carved from single tree trunks about 90 cm across, they rest 25 to 70 metres above the river on hewn poles wedged into rock clefts or caves. Many were lost when the Three Gorges Dam raised the water level, though some have since been retrieved for study.

The stream flows generally north to south for a total length of 60 kilometres, receiving 17 tributaries along its course, and joins the Yangtze opposite Badong at Xirangkou (西壤口), 2.5 kilometres west of the mouth of Wu Gorge (巫峡). Its average annual flow is 20 cubic metres per second, and it passes through three named gorges. Its drainage basin covers 1031 square kilometres, and the scenic area established along it covers 300 square kilometres, with forest coverage above 85 percent.

What to look for

• The limestone gorge setting above the stream’s meeting with the Yangtze.
• Interpretation of traditional boat-tracker labour on the longer visitor route.

Location & getting there

Getting to Shennong Stream

Board at the Badong Tourism Pier specified on the operator’s booking. The June 2026 notice distinguishes the Luoping return route from a Yaojiatan and tracker-culture corridor route; confirm the actual service and return time.