That's a vendor on a bamboo raft, not someone trying to sell bamboo rafts. In this photo, taken on the li river near Guilin in China, a vendor is waiting for his money having sold a trinket to a fellow tourist.
These guys, like the fan salesman, guide their rafts along side the cruise boats where they or a colleague then grab a hold of part of the boat and try to sell their wares to the tourists on board.
I don't recall what he was selling but he was evidently more successful than the fan salesman when it came to selling to our boat. From his physique it's clear that his trade is not without physical effort. Either that or he works out at the gym a lot when the cruise boats aren't around. Maybe that's why he sells trinkets to tourists on the boats – to pay for his gym membership.
He's also got a great set of teeth which shows there's money in selling souvenirs to tourists, especially when compared with laboring.
Although out of focus, this view clearly shows his vessel is a bamboo raft and not a boat – you can see the water between the poles. You can't see the lashing in this shot but if you look at the end of the raft on the right, it appears there's some sort of rod passing through the bamboo poles to make sure the poles stay alongside each other.
