Yellow River Stone Forest (Chinese: 黃河石林) is located in the southeast of Jingtai (景泰) County, Baiyin (白銀) City, Gansu (甘肅) Province, China. Besides the splendid scenery of the massive stone pillars, tourists can also enjoy the fun of river rafting by sheepskin raft (羊皮筏).
Gansu Province is famous for the sheepskin raft, since Gansu Province does not have enough wood to build ships, locals resort to using the sheepskin to make rafts.
Sheepskin raft is made of inflated sheepskin, and had once been an important transportation tool for locals living along the banks of the Yellow River.
The skin balloon, which should be made using all the skin from a sheep, would then be tied onto a wooden frame to form a raft.
Starting from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.), the raft is made of a dozen (or even hundreds of) sheepskin bags in various sizes to carry cargo or passengers.
With the advancement of technology, sheepskin raft is no longer the transportation tool, now it has become a popular vehicle for tourists to travel along the Yellow River.
