River Tourism in China

Rivers attract tourists in China as elsewhere. There are four main types of river tourism in China: riverbank sightseeing, riverboats, river drifting (piaoliu ziyou or ziyou piao) and whitewater rafting (yeshui piaoliu or baishui piaoliu). The first two of these are large sectors, mass tourism activities commonplace worldwide. River drifting, ziyou piao, is an activity found only in China and operates at mid-scale, in Chinese terms. Active whitewater rafting follows international models and is currently small scale, but an important contributor to conservation of China’s Great Rivers.