Sheepskin Raft Travel Guide How to Make Sheepskin Rafts

1. How to make a sheepskin raft

There are two types of rafts: cowhide and sheepskin. It consists of pulling the cowhide away from the neck and removing it completely, removing the fur and leaving the outline. The three legs and neck are tied with ropes, inflated from the space of one leg to form an air bag (the legs are then tightened after inflating), and coated with tung oil to prevent corrosion.

Use other branches or wooden boards to make a cross-shaped square, arrange seven or eight sheepskins, or a dozen sheepskins tightly together, lay them flat underneath, arrange them with rafts, and place them in the middle of the stream. A man holds a wooden board to divert the water, just facing its direction, and then floats away.

2. What does a sheepskin raft look like?

Shogng helmsman, ferryman, also refers to a person whose occupation is punting. Sheepskin raft, commonly known as Paizi, is an ancient water transport tool made of sheepskin. It consists of a dozen sheets of fluffy goatskin.

Rafts can be big or small. The largest sheepskin raft is composed of more than 600 sheepskin bags, and the smaller raft is composed of more than 10 sheepskin bags. It is suitable for short-distance transportation, mainly used for transporting fruits and vegetables from suburbs to urban areas, and ferrying pedestrians on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Sheepskin rafts are an important part of Yellow River culture and the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient Han working people.

Sheepskin rafts have a history of more than 300 years and were once used for transportation on the Yellow River in Lanzhou. It has now become a highlight of Lanzhou's Yellow River tourism, and it is also the inheritance of Lanzhou's Han folk culture.

3. Video on how to make a sheepskin raft

Making a sheepskin raft requires high slaughtering and skinning skills. From the sheep's neck, slowly peel off the entire skin without cutting out any areas.

After the sheepskin is depilated, blow air to expand the skin, then pour in a small amount of clear oil, salt, and water, and then tie the head, tail, and limbs of the skin tightly. The dry skin is yellow, brown, and transparent, and looks like a bulging cylinder.

Use hemp rope to tie hard ash wood strips to a square wooden frame, then tie several wooden strips horizontally, and tie leather tires under the wooden strips in turn, and the raft is made.

4. The process of making a sheepskin raft

The sheepskin is peeled from the crotch opening, which means that the entire sheepskin is barrel-shaped and is removed like other peeled parts. Meat.

5. What are sheepskin rafts used for?

Sheepskin rafts, commonly known as paizi, are ancient water transportation tools. It is made of more than a dozen pieces of fluffy goat skin Huntuo (made through a series of processing procedures such as soaking in water, exposing to the sun, peeling, tying, pouring salt, sesame oil, etc.), tied side by side on a thin wooden frame. Sheepskin rafts come in both large and small sizes. The largest raft is made of more than 600 sheepskin bags, is 12 meters long, 7 meters wide, has 6 oars, and has a carrying capacity of between 20 and 30 tons. At present, sheepskin rafting has become a special tourism project on the Yellow River. The sheepskin rafts for tourists along the Yellow River are small rafts made of 13 leather tires tied in an arrangement of 4 in the front, 4 in the back, and 5 in the middle. They weigh more than 20 kilograms and can seat five people.

The raft can only go downstream, not upstream. There is water rafting and rafting, so it has been eliminated. However, sheepskin rafts have the advantages of energy saving, environmental protection and wide field of vision. It is also a rare pleasure to sit on a sheepskin raft and watch the scenery downstream. The raft has excellent buoyancy, is easy to operate and control, and is as fast as an arrow when encountering turbulence, giving people the pleasure of flying down. Long-distance rafting requires large rafts on which tourists can walk. On it, they can float on the Yellow River for half a day to two days, enjoying the magnificent scenery on the Yellow River along the way.

6. How sheepskin rafts are made

The value of the sheepskin cutting tourism project lies in promoting the intangible cultural heritage of sheepskin rafts, and its significance lies in improving the quality of tourism.

7. Illustration of how to make a sheepskin raft

Sheepskin rafts, commonly known as paizi, are ancient water transportation tools. It consists of a dozen sheets of fluffy goatskin. There are rafts big and small. The largest sheepskin raft is composed of more than 600 sheepskin bags, and the smaller raft is composed of more than 10 sheepskin bags. It is suitable for short-distance transportation, mainly used for transporting fruits and vegetables from suburbs to urban areas, and ferrying pedestrians on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Sheepskin rafts have a history of more than 300 years

Lanzhou has the Yellow River passing through the city. This unique regional feature has given birth to a unique water transportation tool - sheepskin rafts. Since the sheepskin rafts were officially recognized as the first batch of intangible cultural heritage in Gansu Province by the Provincial Department of Culture in 2006, the Qilihe District Cultural Bureau has started the work related to the declaration of the sheepskin rafts as a national intangible cultural heritage.

Skin rafts are divided into sheepskin rafts and cowhide rafts.

There are flocks of cattle and sheep in Gannan, Linxia, ??Jingyuan and other places in the Yellow River Basin, providing sufficient raw materials for making rafts. Initially, we used cowhide tires for water transport. Later, we developed them in practice. We tied cowhide bags under the raft to make a raft. Later, sheepskin rafts appeared because they were made of many materials, simple to make, easy to carry, easy to inflate, and easy to transport.

Sheepskin rafts are rafts made of sheep and cowhide. It is a ferry tool reserved by the people along the Yellow River in ancient times and has been used since ancient times. In ancient times, working people sewed leather into bags, filled them with air, and swam across rivers. In the Tang Dynasty, this kind of tool was called a leather bag, but by the Song Dynasty, the leather bag was a complete piece of skin hollowed out after slaughtering cattle and sheep, rather than sewn, so it was renamed Huntuo. Do the finished solution and peel it off. At first, people swam across the river carrying a leather bag or a mud bag. Later, for safety and increased loading capacity, several mud bags were put together on the raft, and then tied together with small ropes to form a raft. It is the main means of transportation in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Ancient poem: A reed is like a reed that has lost a vast ocean. It refers to the scene in which a raft breaks through muddy waves and crosses a treacherous beach.

China has a long history of rafts. 755-79000: In the 23rd year of Jianwu of the Han Dynasty (AD 47), the king sent troops south by boat (i.e. raft). 055-79000:; Using cowhide as a ferry. 055-79000:; Use the sheep's skin as a bag and blow air to make it float in the water. Lanzhou sheepskin raft, in February of the 14th year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (AD 1675), Prince Yin of Shaanxi Province who was hiding in Lanzhou was sentenced to rebellion. When Xining's company commander Wang Jinbao was ordered to attack, he demolished houses in Zhangjiahe Bay, crossed the Yellow River at night with wood, and captured Xincheng and Gaolan Weilong Mountain. In June, the Soldier King also built more than 100 rafts in an attempt to escape across the river. He led the army to attack along the river and forced the king of soldiers to surrender. It can be seen that at least 320 years ago, there were a large number of rafts used to cross the river in Lanzhou.

Making a sheepskin raft requires high butchering and skinning skills. From the sheep's neck, the entire skin slowly fades away, without any fur being cut off. After the sheepskin is depilated, air is blown to expand the skin, then a small amount of clear oil, salt, and water are poured in, and the head, tail, and limbs of the skin are tied tightly. The dry skin is yellow, brown, and transparent, and looks like a bulging cylinder. People killed a sheep, skinned it, breathed it, dried it in the sun for a month, and anointed its body with oil. Use hemp rope to tie hard ash wood strips to a square wooden frame, then tie several wooden strips horizontally, and tie leather tires under the wooden strips in turn, and the raft is made. Sheepskin rafts are small in size, light in weight and have a shallow draft. They are very suitable for sailing on the Yellow River and each part can be disassembled and carried.

Yuan Ying said it well. He stood on the small raft, with the safety of several passengers behind him and the dangerous Yellow River storm in front of him. In my hand, there is only a thick and thin pole. With his courage and wisdom, calmness and wit, as well as his experience and judgment, this little raft defeated the stormy waves, turned danger into safety, and became the master of the Yellow River.

8. How to make a sheepskin raft

Making a sheepskin raft requires high slaughtering and skinning skills. From the sheep's neck, slowly remove the entire hide without cutting anywhere.

After the sheepskin is depilated, blow air to expand the skin, then pour in a small amount of clear oil, salt, and water, and then tie the head, tail, and limbs of the skin tightly. The dry skin is yellow, brown, and transparent, and looks like a bulging cylinder.

Use hemp rope to tie the hard ash wood strips to a square wooden frame, and then tie a few wooden strips

9. The process of making a sheepskin raft

Known as a kayak in ancient times, it was also called a paizi. As early as thousands of years ago, smart and brave people of the Yellow River got into inflated cattle and sheepskin bags and swam across the river. The sheepskin rafts at that time were similar to what we see today. Making sheepskin rafts requires great skills in butchering and skinning. From the sheep's neck, slowly peel off the entire skin without cutting anywhere.

After the sheepskin is depilated, blow air to expand the skin, then pour in a small amount of clear oil, salt, and water, and then tie the head, tail, and limbs of the skin tightly. The dry skin is yellow, brown, and transparent, and looks like a bulging cylinder.

Use hemp rope to tie hard ash wood strips to a square wooden frame, then tie several wooden strips horizontally, and tie leather tires under the wooden strips in turn, and the raft is made.