The Dulong is a tributary to the Irawaddy that flows into the Bay of Bengal at Yangon, Myanmar. This was a kayak expedition that Jed Weingarten and his father Peter have been planning for many years. The river flows through an area inhabited by the Drung, a colorful, unique minority culture that is more similar to Burmese hill tribes than to Han Chinese or northern minority nationalities. Since their expedition, Bai Zhen Ni (White Pearl) Expeditions, which has yet to run any expeditions in this area, has persuaded local officials to charge exorbitant permit fees to eliminate competetion. Eventually the local government will realize that no one will pay them and they'll be forced to reduce them to a reasonable amount to encourage ecotourism to replace logging and other extractive industries.

They put-in near Tengchon (25 01 49N, 989 28 26E) in October 2003 at about 6500' and took out about 50 miles downstream near Lianghe (24 49 26N, 98 17 51E). Average gradient for this Class 4 roadside stretch is about 50' per mile, flow about 1500 cfs. If permit fees drop, this could be a good repeat run.

Return to Salween First Descents.
More info about rivers of Tibet and western China