Sailing on Dry Land
- Cultural Highlights
- Source：HUKOU
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Sailing on dry land is the traditional local custom that the boats are collected on the banks of the Yellow River upstream and downstream of Hukou in Ji County, dragged and towed on dry land to cross the natural Hukou moat by local trackers with tools.
It was said in Liu Longguang's poem in Qing Dynasty: The yellow stream rolled into the pot, and nine-bending waves were powerful in this place. Yu's success in governance with flaws left, and the boat was temporarily exhausted to come and go." It is said that the Hukou Waterfall cut water transport on the Yellow River into two sections and became a natural obstacle. Ships heading east were not only unable to pass through the river, but they couldn’t anchor the boat due to the turbulent currents here, and fell into a deep quirk because of the rush of water. Therefore, the boatmen had to dock in advance at Longwangchan, the upstream of the waterfall. All the loaded goods were unloaded and carried down by livestock, while the hull was dragged ashore by manpower. The boat was pulled to the place in slow flow downstream of the waterfall, and the cargo was loaded into the water, moving down the river, which was called a "sailing on dry land".
In ancient times, large ships marching from the Yellow River to the upper stream of Hukou came ashore from Longwangchan, where dozens to hundreds of strong villagers acted as trackers, and they used ropes to pull people on the dry land of the river bank to push and pull downstream. When encountering a place where the rocks on the river bank are flat, a round log is placed under the boat and rolling forward step by step. When encountering a sandy ground, it rubs forward on the sand. It moves forward one kilometer completely by manpower, bypassing the Hukou Waterfall, reaching the "Tekou" stone gap, and then repairing the worn out and damaged places on the ship to repair the leaks, pushing into the water, and continuing the voyage after loading.
Water shipping through Hukou has been blocked for many years. Only the traces of the old boats can be seen while the boat is sailing on dry land. As a traditional business custom that has been passed down for thousands of years in Yellow River Hukou, sailing on dry land once made an important contribution to shipping on the Yellow River. The tragic scene of the Hukou tracker pulling a boat has always been a vivid portrayal of the perseverance and indomitable spirit of the Yellow River. Since the reform and opening up, sailing on dry land has gradually faded out of people's view, but it still has significant cultural tourism development value as an important cultural symbol of the Yellow River Hukou.
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"Steering a Dry Boat"
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Ming-Qing Wharf of Hukou