“I had heard my father say that for every boat tracking stone, at least three people would have died”. Xiang Jiaxiong, who belongs to the Tujia ethnic minority group and lives by the Yangtze River, is the last generation of boat trackers of the Three Gorges.

Boat trackers make their living towing and rowing boats. As a result of the heavy weight of the tow lines, the boat trackers appear with their backs arched, limping along with each step. Many people in this occupation spent the year travelling back and forth, and people who passed by the Three Gorges could sometimes hear their rock-splitting “haozi”, or work songs, though very few understood their ways.