"Here take this," said the tour guide, handing me a pink umbrella and a circus-like water gun as I clambered onto our bamboo raft (zhufa) wrapped in a blue plastic raincoat. "Are you ready for a big water war?"
As the raft, one of 1,000 at the disposal of the Hangzhou Shuangxi Rafting Company, engaged in exchanges of friendly fire with other boats and hiccupped its way over the first drop in our hour-long ride, however, it soon became apparent that the only thing in danger was my masculinity, not my life.
Bamboo rafting in Shuangxi, a small town of 4,000 people about an hour's drive from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, has been wildly popular among Shanghai locals and neighboring Chinese since its launch in 2000. Foreigners are also getting in on the act, with 60,000 making the trek there in 2006 alone.
Last weekend, about 8,000 tourists paid 90 yuan each to be pole driven across the slow-flowing river and enjoy the plush green countryside, riverside barbecues and the novelty of being transported to their raft on an ox-driven cart.
"The cow taxis are very popular," said my guide as we trotted past a dozen water buffalo cooling off in the river. Most of them looked disgruntled at the presence of a foreigner about to disrupt their day off.
Swimming is banned in the river, much to my disappointment, but you can fish if you bring or fashion your own rod. You can even get your catch cooked at one of the nearby restaurants in a local sweet-and-sour brown sauce (cu yu). Other provincial delicacies include the delightfully named "beggar's chicken".
The farmers who work there are more than keen to test your putonghua skills, as are the troupes singing traditional Peking opera songs along the riverbed. Any Chinese language skills will come in handy as no one here seems to speak more than survival English. Then again, that is all part of the fun.
