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.