Rainforest to Snow

The Yunnan province in Southwest China has three big rivers: the Yangtze-Jinsha, the Mekong -Lancang and the Salween-Nu. The altitude ranges from 76.4m to 6740m and landscape from rainforest to snowy peaks. “ It’s a cool place” says Ramsey Tan, one of the white water paddling locals. 

There are not so many white water paddlers in the Yunnan, but the sport is gaining interest. Ramsey explains he first became interested in paddling when he was young by watching TV shows. The canoe slalom race at the Beijing Olympics was one of his inspirations and Ramsey taught himself to roll by watching a video. A local paddling club was formed in Nujiang and for a long time Ramsey and a friend learned kayaking from watching videos from abroad. Amongst his favourites to watch were Waka Team paddlers Nouria Newman, Benny Marr, and Aniol Serrasolses. Gradually he found he had too little time to kayak, with his job at that time. Then last year he made the big decision to quit his job and focus on kayaking – River Research was born. Ramsey took a kayak course by inviting an ACA instructor from Colorado and became a Level 4 instructor. Ramsey says this was a great decision and made his new business thrive, achieving his goal to have more time to paddle. 

Ramsey mainly paddles on the Nu/Salween River.  This is one of the last big rivers in China without dams. Ramsay bought a secondhand Waka Goat from a visiting canoe slalom team and gradually fell in love with it. Then he bought some more – a Billy Goat and a Steeze. At the Nujiang Wild Water Race, Ramsey met Waka Team paddler River Mutton. Riv had travelled to the race without her own kayak and she was delighted when Ramsey insisted that she borrow his own Waka Goat for the race. Ramsey wanted to bring the newer Waka products to China, and it seems like as with a lot of things for Ramsey, he made it happen. If you happen to be heading in their direction and need a new boat, River Research now has Waka kayaks in stock! And for sure the Nu/Salween River is a whitewater adventure to consider. The local club in Nujiang welcomes paddlers from all over the world and is able to rent boats to visitors. There are some flat-water and grade 2 sections for paddlers wanting a more relaxed Chinese adventure.

Ramsey himself is a man on a mission. Like his business name, River Research, his goal is to explore more rivers. This quest has already taken Ramsey kayaking in many places such as Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia. Highlights that he rates have been the creek at Shangrila, and a small waterfall at Guangxi province. The Kanas river in Xinjiang is his next goal. 

“If Aniol were to come visit…” Ramsey thinks best options would be “ some big river like Lancang (Mekong) and Yangtze. Also some creek and waterfall at Zhejiang but it needs typhoon to bring the heavy rain, and some rivers at Tibet and Xinjiang, but it’s hard to make a trip there for foreigners. Some waterfalls in Guangxi province should be great.” The connectedness of the international kayaking community is something special and we are excited for what’s next for Ramsey and his whitewater kayaking crew.