I Make It Yichang!!!

The next day the man who called himself Zhang called me down for breakfast. Breakfast was the same as dinner. Okay, I am really starting to think all the people eat around here is noodles, broccoli, and goat meat. When I asked zhang how far away from Yichang we were, he said about fifty miles away. He then said I could make it in one days time. I thanked him and left. I went back to the river and it turns out I could see Yichang in the distance. I started running and I tripped but I got up and then walked and walked, I got thirsty and I decided to make myself some tea. I lit a fire and went down to the river to get some water for the tea I got back to the fire and had to wait ten minutes to make the tea. Then after I had my tea, I continued to walk towards Yichang. As I got closer, I saw a temple on the edge of Yichang and decided that would be the first place I would got to. I continued to walk for about 20 more minutes and finally reached Yichang. I walked to the temple and saw a sign that said “Huangling Temple”. I knocked on the door and a monk in orange robes came to the door and asked if I was hungry. I said yes and he invited me inside. He gave me goat meat, broccoli, noodles, and green tea. I mean do the only thing these people eat is that?!?!?. Whatever. The food tasted good and the monk invited me to stay for the night and I said yes. He said I could sleep upstairs and that he call me down in the morning when breakfast was ready. In the morning he called me down and I had the same thing for breakfast as I had for dinner last night

I Meet An Untrustworthy Fellow

As you remember my name is Jian and I am traveling up the Yangtze River in China. I just started walking the river five minutes ago and I keep getting closer to the village I saw yesterday. I can’t wait to get there because I want to meet the villagers and stock up on more food, Oh, and catch up on the news. Hey it’s not like lots of people follow the river everyday because they want to so it is really not easy to get the news. As I walk, I wonder if the villagers will give me something else to eat besides noodles, goat meat, and broccoli. I also wonder if they will let me sleep in one of the houses because sleeping on the rocks hurt my back last night, so I do not want to have to do that again. I am 25 miles away from the village. 5 Hours later… Okay I finally made it to the village, right now I am going to knock on the door of a house. I knocked and a man came to the door. He said his name was Zhang and was glad to have me as a guest. I asked if I could sleep here and if he would give me some food. He said I could sleep upstairs. I went upstairs and discovered a bed, a table and a window.  5 minutes later he called me down to the dining room and guess what was for dinner. Noodles, goat meat, and broccoli. The food was okay, but I am really getting tired of that stuff. I mean it is all these people seemed to eat.

Walking The River

Hi, I am still Jian and I am still following the river. Today I left the pagoda and started my way up the river. I hear the sound of birds sitting in the trees and The sound of fish in the river. I have to travel fifty miles today if I want to get to yichang in four days time. I think I see a village on the banks of the river about a hundred miles away. I think thats were I am going to go. As I walk along the banks of the river, I think of how the people here survive and how they build all the temples, pagodas, and the houses they live in. I was walking along the river when it started to rain and I had to build a little shelter and make a fire to cook the noodles and keep myself warm. I also decided to go down to the river to get some water to make some green tea. I cut down some bamboo and leaned it against a tree and covered the bamboo with leaves and and lit the fire. I took some time to light but I finally got the fire going and cooked the noodles and green tea. 5 minutes later… ... Okay the tea is ready but I need to wait to have the noodles cooked completely. Finally, The noodles are done and it is time to eat. the food was delicious, but I am getting tired and I am going  to go to sleep. The next morning I decided to make myself some more tea and more noodles for breakfast. Okay I really need to get something else to eat beside noodles.

I Meet A Man Named Wu...

As you probably remember, My name is Jian and I going to continue my journey down the river, from Wuhan to Yichang.

It seems that it is still humid and I can’t quite deal with the humidity although it turns out it is almost nine at night. I need to find a place to sleep and get something to eat. I think I will go to the pagoda on Moshan Hill and hope the people will let me spend the night there and give me something to eat. The hill is incredibly steep, covered in trees and the path has plants growing through the cracks between the stones on the path. Okay it took me 5 hours to climb to the hill and it is ten at night. I knock on the door of the pagoda and a man ome s and opens the door. He says his name is Wu and I asked him if could spend the night and if he could give me something to eat. Wu said I could spend the night and said he would make green tea, noodles, goat meat, and broccoli, I mean I’m starting to get tired of broccoli but I still like it. I thanked him for the tea and the food, and went up to the guest room to sleep. The next morning, I woke up and asked if there were any other temples, villages, or pagodas along the way to Yichang. Wu said “There might be but I haven’t gone far from the pagoda my whole life”. I said okay and he gave me some green tea leaves, some raw noodles and some paper, ink, and a quill pen to keep track of my journey.

Sunrise on the Lake and End of Trek

“OHHHHH time to get up everyone, lets go, if you get up now you can see the wonderful sunrise over the mountains and hills.” I said “Ok,” said someone “I’m up.” “Come on it’s so beautiful, everyone up, lets go. Get packed up and get some water down at the lake so we are ready to finish this trek to Wuhan.” I said (after everyone has done their jobs and goten water) Ok lets head out. (after an hour journey) Hey do you guys want to stop at this ledge and sit under that tree. “sure,” said everyone. (under the tree) Okay hows everybody doing we are close to wuhan and when we get there you can all take cold showers or a cold  bath. “Woohoo,” they had not had a shower since yesterday and they were all hot because it was 95 degrees outside and they were hiking and walking long distances, so they had to be careful and not have someone get overheated. “I want everybody to drink enough water so that you don’t faint,” I warned. After they finished drinking, they started walking back to the trail, and then continued on. (one hour later) “Hey look we are here” Somebody said as we went over the ridge. “Ya” said someone else. Then they they all started running to the shop that said “Tub and Showers” because they wanted to take one. So the rest of the day they spent at “Tub and Showers” having a good time and then after everyone was done they went to the hotel and slept.

Travel Day

“Rise and shine everyone time to get an early start to a big day, we are traveling up river to the forest and the jungle where thing are undisturbed and peaceful, away from commotion and tragedy.” I yawned “woohoo!” yelled everyone, “lets get going.” (everyone starts packing for the trip) “I am so excited,” said one person. “I know right,” said another. “Were heading out everyone let’s go.” I said excitedly (down in lobby) “Ok guys this is what we are going to do. We will take a long trek all the way to Donghu were we will spend the night and then get up and continue on to Wuhan. We are going to walk outside to the outskirts of town and continue on. Lets go.” I said (at the outskirts of town) “Ok everyone are you ready to start hiking.” I said (half an hour later) This is harder that I though, few. “It’s so hot,” said one person. Well than lets take a water break under that shady tree. “ya,” said someone. (under the tree) I love water, but lets get going again, and we have to conserve water for later. (3 hours later they arrive at Donghu) “Woohoo we are here, yes. I am going to take a swim after that long walk because I’m so hot. “me too,” shouted everyone. (after a half hour swim) “Ok everyone lets eat dinner, I have rice and chicken.” I said “mmmmm,” said everyone. (they did their prayers and then sacrificed some food to the gods and then went to sleep)

The Great Wall and Bixie

“Ohhhhhh, good morning everyone, rise and shine, come on, get up.” I said “Ohhh” yawed everyone. “Lets go get breakfast down in the lobby and then we will have to get going on our traveling.” I said (down in the lobby eating breakfast) “mmmmm my favorite salmon and rice for breakfast,” I mumbled “Ya” mumbled the rest of the group. “Ok so where should we go today.” I said “Maybe we should go to the bixie statue it is one of the city icons” said one person. “I think we should go to the Great Wall being built,” said another. “Well maybe we could see both lets head out to the bixie statue. (after a 30 minute walk) few we are here at the entrance lets go see the statue up close! Wow it’s huge almost 17 feet tall and 27 ton in weight, WOW!!! This is amazing and it seemed cool to have something from another dynasty in ours, and look at the carving marks they are awesome and show the true harmony of the creature. Now lets go check out the Great Wall,” I said excitedly. (after a 10 minute walk) “Hey look guys we are almost there and look at the gigantic pieces of rock being moved and all the different workers doing there job so amazingly, oh and I wonder how long this thing will last into the future. It is so amazing to be lucky enough to see this wall because it represent our culture in different ways. Now let’s go back to the hotel and eat some dinner time flies by so fast these days, but we also have to go in early so that tomorrow we can be ready for the journey.” I said

A day in Wuhan

“Hi my name is Jian and I am traveling along the Yangtze river. Right now I am in Nanjing and planning to go to Wuhan. I am so excited to continue on with my my adventure on the Yangtze river. I can’t believe that I have never been here to nanjing, and I’ve heard that it was beautiful but I came at the wrong time because of the breakdown in society. I am in the Yangzhou Providence and traveling on to Jingzhou Providence. Right now I am going to see the Jiming Temple it is a very nice monastery with one hall and a large buddha statue it is very peaceful and away from all the commotion on the streets and people talking. It also has very nice statues and large arch when you walk in making you very peaceful and thinking it is a good place to be. I am going to stay here with the monks for the rest of the day and pray to buddha and the spirits. Omm Omm Omm.” I prayed (5 Hours later) “Well that was very relaxing and it helped bring out my inner self and now I feel great. I think that we should head back to the hotel and when we get back, eat dinner.” I said (at the hotel eating dinner) Mmmmm “I love the smell of great chinese food. I’m going to order some noodles, beef and broccoli.” I said “Chomc, Crunk, Snap, I love the broccoli” he said muffly. “Let’s go up to the room and get to sleep.” I said

I get to the demolished town

Today I am going to a famous person… It is… wait for in Yuwen Kai. You may wonder who is Yuwen Kai. Yuwen Kai is the person who had the idea of the Grand Canal. Why do I want to know so much about the grand canal, well it’s because I live there and I want to know more about where I live. May I just say the scenery is beautiful, green everywhere, curves stretching into more curves and small hills taking away the outer parts of Yangzhou. I am just about to the place where I am meeting  Yuwen Kai. I see him waving at me. I go up to him and he tells me just about everything about the grand canal. Some of it I couldn’t even follow, but here’s the jist of it, making and designing the Grand Canal was hard work. So now I had found out about the Grand Canal, what it was like to work making it, what is was like to be a buddhist monarch, and learned about laws of farming. Now I’m almost to the city that the Sui dynasty demolished when it came to power. I can’t believe that in only four days I have come so far. I have gone almost 200 miles already and this is my smallest distance from city to city on the Yangtze River. I see a demolished town in the distance, but the boat is too far away to see it closely, then I get to it and I need to say it is sure demolished.    

I meet some hypnotized people

I am still in Yangzhou and I won't be in Jingzhou for another weeks, but I want to see more in Yangzhou so today I am going to a buddhist monastery today. I get to the monastery and I see bald people in orange robes. I had never seen a buddhist monastery before today and I am so surprised. I arrive a bit too late they are all chanting what seems to me like gibberish. They seemed to be in their own world away from all distractions, I feel like if I waved my hand right in front of them they would not even notice. Well, how would I know I’m not Buddhist. After about 20 more minutes the chant was over. But the real question was what was it like to be a buddhist monarch. After the were done chanting they invited me over and said they were going to the river to perform rituals. They brought me with them and the next thing I know is that they are burning roses and pouring water into the river. Why would they be doing that does, the river need more water. Now I had some questions to ask. The teacher (I think) has invited me into his room, I need to ask him a question. First, let me tell you about what  I am going to ask him. Since, the Sui dynasty is so new not many people are buddhist. The Sui dynasty converted to buddhism to justify imperial authority.

“So, why do you like buddhism,” I ask. “I like it because peace and harmony is the best way,” He said. So that’s it peace and harmony is the best way.           

I meet some people who worked on the Grand Canal

Further upstream there was a small village with some people who had worked on the construction of the Grand Canal. First, let me tell you about the Grand Canal, the Grand Canal was finished very recently right now it is 609 A.D. and it was finished in 605 A.D. it connects the Yellow River to the Yangtze River. Now I will be talking to Da, Chin and Feng. After, talking with them about just about everything I finally ask them the question I had been waiting to ask all day.

“So, guys what was it like working on the Grand Canal,” I ask. “ It was very hard work we would have to move very heavy things, we would get calluses, cuts, and bruises,” Da says. “We would be ordered around to do manual labor,” Feng said. “I think it was good to do because now their is a short cut to the yellow river,” Chin said. “One last thing, how different has it been since Emperor Wendi died, four years ago,” I asked. “It has been different, knowing he is dead, but Yang Guang has been doing some very good things like restoring Confucian education and the Confucian examination system,” Da said. “I agree,” Chin said. “So Chin you are 40 you lived during the northern and southern dynasties, what was that like,” I ask. “It was chaos, all of the dynasties were fighting multiple countries it was bad in my opinion,” He replied. I thanked them and left. I must say just this part of my journey has been so beautiful, heartwarming, and inspirational, I can’t say much else.               

The start of my Journey

First let me tell you about myself I am from china but I have never seen the Yangtze river, so I want to follow the river. I am fluent in English and middle chinese, I am 35 and I am full of adventure. I, Jian am traveling from along the Yangtze River from where it meets the ocean to the city that the Sui dynasty took over and demolished (Nanjing). I am starting at where the ocean opens into a river. It is so beautiful the river has fields and deltas right in the middle of vast space of plateaus. I am at a small town slightly up river and I am going to talk to a farmer about the equal field system and the agricultural productivity promised by the Sui dynasty. I am going to ask a local farmer named Tu.

“Hi Tu, what do you think about the equal field system,” I say. “ I think the equal field system is good because the government thought I do a lot of work so they gave me a good amount of land,” Tu responded. “So, what do you think about the agricultural productivity promised by the Sui dynasty” I say. “Since, the Sui dynasty has been going only for a short amount of time they haven’t done much to improve our agriculture,” Tu said. “Now Tu can I try some of your rice,” I said. “Of course,” Tu said. The rice was amazing! I thanked Tu and continued on my journey.