Finishing My Journey

Days 6-8

For the next few days, I  travel with the nomads; it would be too dangerous to leave the trail and hike through the steep mountains alone. They continue to take good care of my mule and she slowly becomes fatter. The walking and cold air raise my spirits and I travel along the trail singing songs with the nomads. They are glad to make me happy and even offer the horse I was riding to me to keep. For good. I am not sure whether to accept the gift or not.

When we get close to the source, I begin to get excited. Nobody except for monks and nomads have ever seen this portion of the river before. The nomads tell me there is a monastery near the source, but they are not allowed to enter. I ask why, and they say it is because they are not Confucius. I wonder if I will be able to come in because I am traveling with the nomads. I decide not to worry about it until we get to the source.

By midday on the seventh day of my journey, I find myself gasping for breath. How could this be? The nomads tell me I am not used to the mountain air and laugh at me. I laugh too, but I am determined to show them I can do something.

The next day, we arrive at the source, a small spring in a narrow valley. I slip a lot. At first, the nomads laugh at me again, but when my eyebrows begin to lower and my face turns red, they decide to help me down. Some of them even apologize for laughing at me yesterday. I accept the apologies graciously.

When we get to the bottom of the valley, the nomads let me drink from the source. It is fresh and pure. I smile at them and thank them for their hospitality. They offer to escort me back. I want to refuse, but they insist. And so, with my newfound nomad friends, I make my way back to Lihang, and vow to return to the eternal source of the Yangtze River one day.

Meeting Nomads!

Day 5

The morning is clear with few clouds. The world is so different here; it feels like a dream. I say goodbye and thank the small family I stayed with last night. They smile and tell me goodbye too. I swing my legs over my mule and continue riding up the rugged trail.

Around midday, I come to a nomad tribe. They invite me to stay with them the rest of my journey because they are traveling to the source also. I agree and thank them. They feed my mule and let me ride one of their bigger, stronger, horses. Riding a horse feels different than riding a mule; horses have some kind of power that mules don’t. I tell the tribe I’ve never been able to afford a horse before.

“We do not care about money,” they reply, “Nor social status. We found these wild.”

I can’t imagine how they managed to capture a wild horse, but I can assume it must have been quite an ordeal. They sing their tribe’s traditional traveling songs and teach them to me. I wish I could stay a nomad forever. They have such an easy life.

For dinner, we stop and set up a camp with tents and hitch the horses (and my mule) to some craggy rocks. The animals wait patiently while we eat and share my food. Then, it is time to let them graze. I don’t see any grass around; the animals must starve. But the nomads lead them to a small spring, bubbling water that had melted the snow around it. How can they know the area so well? I ask them but they just smile. They wouldn’t want to tell me their secrets.

With dusk, comes extreme cold. The nomads give me a furry coat, stitched together from many animal’s pelts. I thank them, but I can see that they just pulled it out of a pile of extra coats. They have done a good job adapting to harsh, cold environment. When we are ready to sleep, we crawl into surprisingly warm tents, and leave the fire burning to keep us warm. We cover the animals with blankets to keep them from freezing in the cold. The rush of the Yangtze lulls us all to sleep.  

A Snowstorm!

Days 2-4

The morning is clear and bright. I say goodbye to the monks who load my mule with incense and tea. I thank them, and I am on my way. The bright sun beats down on my back and I am not cold anymore. The Yangtze rushes by, through a shallow gorge. Everything is peaceful, much more so than in Lihang.

At lunchtime, I reach a village along the Silk Route, the first one I have seen since I begun my journey. I ride towards the village among yak herders. When I arrive, I go to the monastery. Someone there will give me a meal, I’m sure. When I arrive, I get a nice meal of rice and vegetables, a rare delicacy in the dead of winter. I thank the people at the monastery and then I get on my mule and ride just a bit past the village to a small hut, similar to Di and Sei’s. The kind family who live there invite me to stay for dinner and sleep there. I am very much obliged.

The next morning, I begin my journey into the mountains. I can feel the trail sloping upwards and getting narrower until it is little more than a footpath. My mule whinnies when a pebble falls from a cliff above. Dark clouds are beginning to roll in. I will my mule to go faster, so we can beat this Himalayan blizzard, infamous for killing anyone who is outside. She seems to get the message and breaks into a steady canter. When another rock falls, it spooks her so that she gallops ahead. I do not object; the clouds are so ominous. As the first snowflakes begin to fall and the wind picks up, I come across a small shelter, dug into the mountain. I bang on the door, and a young man and his wife answer.

“Come inside quickly!” they say, “A snowstorm is coming!”

I accept their invitation and come in. The shelter is little more than a hole, but it is cozy with the candlelight. I eat lunch, and the snowstorm passes. When I come out, snow blankets the landscape in a thin crust. It sparkles in the little sun there is. I thank the couple and keep riding.

That night, I stay at another family’s house, and at the end of the next day, I find myself two days’ riding distance from the end of the river. I’m almost there.

Exploring Confucianism With Di and Sei

Day 1

The first day of my journey dawns cold and bitter. I wrap some cloth around myself and get onto my mule. She will carry my supplies. I start up the path and the wind becomes worse. My eyes begin to water, and I squint against the cold. This is how most days are during winter in this region. I expect they will be worse in the mountains. No matter, I have brought lots of cloth with me. I think I will be fine.

Around midday, I arrive at a small hut. I decide to ask if I can stay a while; I am very hungry and cold. When I knock on the door, it creaks. These people must be even poorer than I. I begin to feel kind of embarrassed that I would ask them for help. They obviously would not help me. Just as I begin to walk away, the door opens. An old man answers.

“Hello?” he says.

“Hello,” I answer, “I am looking for a place to warm myself.”

“Come in, come in, my friend,” he says with a smile.

I step into the house and immediately smell incense. It’s rather comforting, even though I’m not religious. The old man, named Di, introduces me to his wife, Sei. They tell me they are Taoist and explain to me that they burn incense as an offering. The couple do a good job of making their small house seem cosy. We sit down to a lovely lunch of dumplings (made by them), meat, and rice (made by me). When I am done, I thank them, but tell them I need to go on my way. They smile and tell me they hope they will see me again. I doubt it, but I tell them I hope I will too. I swing my legs over my mule and I am off. The sun shines, watery through the clouds, warming me up a little bit at least, but only enough to take my outermost layer of shawls off. By sunset, I have to put them on again, but at least I am in sight of a monastery where I might have dinner.

The monks are friendly and also are Taoist. They nod and smile at me as I share some of my rice with them. After dinner, I participate in a meaningful prayer session by candlelight. The monks bow their heads and chant to a strange and beautiful rhythm, the perfect lullaby.

Getting Ready in Lihang

Intro: I am getting ready for my journey up the Yangtze River. I have been selected to complete the journey, as I travel from my home in Lihang to the source of the Yangtze, high in the Himalayas. It could be a long and difficult journey, but as a commoner, the second to lowest of the four classes, I am honored to be completing the journey. I will be leaving the Shu Kingdom and traveling into territory that has not yet been claimed by any of the kingdoms. Here, the way of life has been untouched by the constant war between the Shu, Wei, and Wu Kingdoms. I pack some simple clothing, water, dried meat, vegetables, and rice. I know if I run low on any of these supplies I will be able to hunt for food. The rice will last me a long time because it will not go bad. My resting place each night will be at a monastery or with nomads. I can expect some very exceptional experiences throughout this extraordinary journey.

the sad ending

when I woke up wu and chan were having some tea together so I joined them and I had some tea with wu and chan the tea was from the Yangtze river it was a good tea it had so spices  in it then chan said we are going to go to my secret stream off the yangtze river it will take 30 min to get to the stream we will go fishing in the stream with nets so let get ready to go to the stream so in 10 min we took off and headed to the stream to go fishing when we got to the stream we saw some big fish jumping out of the stream it was an amazing thing to see but anyway it took us 10 min to set up the nets and traps to catch the fish within 1 hour we just would not stop catching fish every time we put a trap in the water we got some thing we also did some hand fishing which is when you go under the water and grab fish with your hand it is hard but it is a lot of fun to do we also got a 99 lbs beast with our hands it took all 3 of us to get it on land and that took about 10 min to do and then to get the fish to stop moving was insanely hard to do it took another 10 min to do that and when we where all do with that we had to leave and go back to chan's hut on the yangtze river. 2 days later I got to my endpoint lihangh.

fishing with chan

wu and  woke up at 7 am wu and I said goodbye to ching and got in our boat and headed down the river my next stop was one of wu's friends from when he was a kid his name is chen is a fisherman he fishes on the Yangtze river to get something to trade and to get food to eat I also love fish and love fishing to so this will be a lot of fun to do in about 2 hours wu and I get to chans hut on the river he is fishing and also has some bamboo fishing rods for wu and I when wu and I dock chan hugs wu and then hugs me then he hands wu and I a fishing rod so we all start fishing and the fish are so high in the water you can see them so about 5 min in to fishing we started catching so many fish we put all the fish under 1 foot back in the river when we stopped fishing we had 100 fish chan then made wu and I a fish for dinner then we went to bed the next day wu woke me up chan then said so who wants to clean some fish chan said ok I said so I 1 hour we cleaned 25 fish the chan said now we will clean the big fish so we got to work and started to clean the big fish we also had to pull all the guts out of the fish by the way that is not fun at all ok do not ever pull guts out of a fish later that day we went to bed

rice rice and more rice

I am woke by wu and chang at 4 am and get are knives to harvest some rice we eat a bowl of rice before we go harvest the rice by the time we get out the door it is 6 am so we get into the boat and go to the rice field on chings 4 acres of land and the 1st thing I do when we get to the rice is ask how do I harvest this rice and then chings shows me how harvest the rice with the grain knife it is a lot of fun and it is easy to do it you know what you're doing so as we harvest rice I fall into the water and then 5 min later I drop a bunch of rice in the water the ching said you must dance to end the spell what spell I said the spell that does not real you just have to grab the rice at the base not the top wafles said ching all 3 of us laughed later after the harvest wu and I went into the kitchen with ching to learn how to make rice in about 1 hour we make some rice which was the best wu on the other hand well lets just say that he destroyed his rice he had 6 bowls of it we also had so tea from the mekong river then ching gave wu and I some tea from the Yangtze river and it was even better than the tea from the mekong then wu and I went to bed we had a big day tomorrow we sadly had to leave chings rice farm

the great beging

I am here in a town called Chongqing it is a nice forest on the Yangtze river I will go on a water run up the Yangtze to a town know as Lihang hoping to meet some locals and do what the locals do and do some jobs on the river with the locals and see the real Yangtze river it will be a lot of fun to eat some of the food the locals eat and help the locals do jobs so lets start this trip my guide’s name is wu he was born and razed on the Yangtze river I am going to meet him at the river bed about 5 min down the river I fall in when wu and I hit a rock on the bottom of the river the river is a good swimming tempchar so I decided to swim with the boat till I get tired so my guide, wu, put a rope around me so I don’t get pulled with the river and put the other end on the boat and 10 min later I get back in the boat and wu and I talk about the 1st stop on our trip it will be a farm the farmer is a rice farmer I love rice so this should be fun in 45 min we get to the rice farmers house the rice farmers name is ching he has been farming for 10 years now and has 4 acres of land and loves to farm rice and will let me help but 1st we will sleep

Ending in Chongqing

Today, I will make my final push to Chongqing. I will probably be happy because I will get to see new things and go back to my normal life of dumpster diving, but I will miss all of the beuty of this amazing palce

Almost there

Blog 3: Today, I am going to a village that is a few miles away from Chongqing. They are hosting a yearly festival which will have many local dances, food, rituals, and stuff like that. I am meeting up with the cook for the festival, who also happens to know Hiashi Kung even though Hiashi doesn't live in this village. He will show me how to make a food. Hi, I am Hai Kai and I am going to show you how to make the gods favorite food, 3 types dumplings. I include 3 types of food. The right mixture of duck meat, vegetables like spinach, chopped carrots, citrus, lettuce, herbs, and spices. I also make the pasta outside here! We religiously make a little boat out of sticks, put one of each of our dumplings, and then send the boat down the river. We think that these please the gods so that they don't put sicknesses, natural disasters, and wars into our land. One year we forgot to put them out and we got two miserable floods and an earthquake. Would you like to try one. Gladly, I said. Tonight, we will send them out. Later that night, the lanterns lit up the sky like stars on a clear night. We all did a chant to the rhythm of the Yangtze and sat the dumpling on the boat. We kept chanting until the boat couldn't be seen and was gone. I fell into the bed in Si Hai's house, who happens to have the biggest house of the whole town.

Half way there!

Blog 2: I am leaving Hiashi Kung’s house today. He gave me some coins and some fruit for the journey. I am now leaving, and I don’t know why but I left at 4 AM. I am going to take a nap while my partner steers the boat. My journey so far has been very beautiful. The river is clear and blue, and mountains are shooting right out of the water from my left and right like a canyon. This is amazing! I learned today that the weather is great here to grow and pick crops, especially rice. All kinds are grown here in China. Rice is also the main food for most Chinese people, especially ones who can’t afford meat and grow rice for a living. The rice here is very good also. They can shape it into many shapes and sizes. Today for breakfast I am having rice balls. The land around the yangtze river has become super wealthy because rice sales are booming. People who used to be poor are definitely more wealthy now. I am also going to try an ancient meal of duck dumplings. They use grains to create the shell. A guy sold me a 12 pack of the dumplings for one of the coins, which didn’t have much worth to it. I am getting close to Chongqing, being half way there my todays end. I am just staying with the boat in a tent tonight. I will have 2 of my apples, and a dumpling.

Beginning in Yichang

Blog 1: I am in Yichang, preparing to go on a water journey that will go about 660 kilometers to Chongqing. I am in a zone for a war called the Yiling War. I am finally leaving this terrible place! It is beautiful without war, but war destroys everything. There has been so much war lately. Glad I didn’t join it. Yichang is also known as Yiling. The journey starts along the beginning to middle point of the Yangtze river. The weather is always humid, so it is overcast when cold and humid and stuffy when hot. One of the main religions around here is confucianism. I wanted to learn more about confucianism so I will talk to the creator of confucianism, Confucius. Confucius wants to set everything back to harmony in China. Here he is! (He’s a little creepy in my opinion. Hey kid, I just want to tell you about Confucianism and the people of it. They believe is resolving things, peace, and order in society as well as respecting others so that you will be respected. Also, the people believe in knowing their role in society. Everyone treats each other based on what their role is, so that the society thrives. That is how I want everything! I also happen to be a ghost so yeah. BYE!!!!!!!!!! That was interesting. I also talked to some random guy named Hiashi Kung. He sells fish for his job. That is also his supply of food for the most part. He sometimes eats fruit. He also let me stay at his house for the night. He isn’t rude clearly. We each had fish and split an apple. I think this guy is pretty poor because he doesn’t seem to have much. I slept in his room  on the ground.

Journey down the Yangtze: Last day and Yichang

Blog post #4:
I have arrived in Yichang, China. The city is apart of a war zone as of right now. It is the least peaceful place out of the three kingdoms in China, Wei, Wu, and Shu. It is the center of the Yiling war. The Shu Han and the Wu dynasties are fighting a bloody war. The battle of Yiling is probably the bloodiest war that China has had. China is in a pretty bad place right now. The Three Kingdoms have created non-stop fighting throughout China. But enough focus on that, let’s talk about one of the people I have met. I met a Confucianist. His name was Ju. I met him in a confucian temple. I asked him a little bit about Confucianism. The first thing I asked him, is who is the center and creator of Confucianism. He said that The creator of Confucianism, was named Confucius. He obviously named the religion after himself. Another thing I asked him was what are some of the Confucian beliefs. He said that Confucians believe that everyone should know their role in society, and how to embrace that role. They also After I left Ju, I met a nice man named Chu, and he was fishing in the Yangtze River.. I asked him why he fishes, and he said to provide food for himself. He was hand catching these fish from the Yangtze. After that, I boarded my ship back home. It has been an incredible journey along the Yangtze River from Wuhan to Yichang. I hope that one day I will find myself here along the Yangtze again.

journey down the Yangtze: exploring Yueyang

Blog post #3

I have arrived in Yueyang. My first stop, is another tower. Like the Yellow Crane tower, the Yueyang tower serves a military purpose. The tower was built by a Commander in Chief named Lu Su. I am about to meet this Lu Su at the Yueyang tower. When I arrived at the tower, I noticed, that like the Yellow Crane Tower, it was so magnificent. It was a very beautiful and tall, red and gold tower. Lu Su was standing in front of tower. I greeted him, and asked him a little bit about his life. I first asked him what the Yueyang tower was built for. He said it was built as a station, for him and his army. I then asked him why he decided to get involved in this giant, bloody war. He told me “Someone has to fight for justice, and someone needs to lead those fighters. I decided I wanted to be the one who had the glory of leading out a tough, fighting group of people, who won justice.” I thought that was a very clear description. I thanked him for the very small slot of time he gave up for me, and carried on with my journey around Yueyang. The next part of my trip, I am very excited about. The Yueyang dragon boat ceremonies. about 100 years ago, a beloved politician, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the river. The local people decided to sail dragon boats, and drop rice into the river where he died. Today I'm going with the Li family, who have done this dragon boat ceremony every year on the anniversary of Qu Yuan’s death, ever since the day he died 100 years ago. I asked them who the oldest person in their family was, because I wanted to see who had been doing this ceremony for the longest time. They said it was the great grandmother of the family, Meng. Meng was 74 years old. “My parents had been to the first ceremony on the day that Qu Yuan died. They wanted to celebrate him every year on his death anniversary, so they did by performing this dragon boat ceremony.” She said. They took me outside their house, and into their dragon boats. We sailed down the river, and dropped rice into the water. Tomorrow, I travel to my last destination Yichang, and I am so excited.

Journey down the Yangtze: More of Wuhan

I woke up in the ship, and decided that I was ready for another day in Wuhan. I will soon be traveling to Yueyang, so I wanted to spend as much time as I can in Wuhan exploring. Wuhan sits right in between the two rivers of Hanjiang, and of course, the Yangtze. Today, I am going to visit the Yellow Crane tower, a tower that was built by Sun Quan himself, for his army. The Tower was built to be sort of a watchtower, and station for soldiers in Sun Quan and Liu Bei’s army. The tower is still pretty active today, and I was on my way to see just how active it was. When I arrived at the tower, the first thing I noticed was how beautiful it was. It was so colorful, and so intricate. I  couldn’t keep my eyes off it. Sure enough, there were many soldiers roaming around. I went up to one of the soldiers, and asked if I could ask him some questions about being a soldier, and the war itself. The first thing I asked was if he was on duty. He said that he wasn’t. He was a retired soldier, who just came to visit the warzone. I asked him when he had served as a soldier, and he said he began serving as a soldier in 220, when China was first separated into it’s three kingdoms. I asked him if he remembered the Yellow Crane tower being built, and he said he remembered it like it was yesterday. The tower was built in 223, and he clearly remembered first walking into it. He said it brought back many memories. I thanked him for his time, then headed off. I made one last stop in Wuhan to see a Taoist Temple. I met one of the Taoists in the temple. I asked him a lot about his religion. A question I asked was what some of the  the Taoism beliefs were. He said that Taoists believe everything in the universe is connected. He also said that Taoism is centered around Yin and Yang, a symbol in which two different forces connect and form balance. After I left the temple, it was time to head down the Yangtze river to Yueyang. Wuhan was fun exploring, and I can’t wait to explore Yueyang.

Journey down the Yangtze: Arriving in Wuhan

Blog post #1

I have arrived at Wuhan, China, located in the Wu kingdom. I am just about to start a 175 mile journey along the Yangtze river from Wuhan, to Yichang. Wuhan’s emperor is named Sun Quan. He has just recently been assigned emperor to the area, and I was going to meet him. When I finally arrived at his home, I asked him many questions, as I was curious to know more about him. The first question I asked, was what year he had been assigned emperor. He said he was assigned to be the emperor of Wuhan in 229. Then, I asked him who had assigned him to be the emperor. He told me that he had assigned himself, because no one was governing the area, and someone had to, so he had just decided to take that spot. I then asked him what one of his greatest achievements were. He told me that his greatest achievement was when his and Liu Bei’s army conquered Cao Cao, and his army in one of the many wars that take place within the Three Kingdoms. I thanked him for his time, then began to explore more of Wuhan. When I was out venturing, I came across a shipbuilding station, and met an ordinary, yet very smart and strong group of shipbuilders. I interviewed them, and asked them many questions about their difficult job. I asked them what kind of ships they built, and they said that they built ships for the war. I asked one of them the biggest ship they had ever built, and they said just about three stories high. I was surprised. A three story ship is an extremely large ship. I thanked them, and they said that they were very welcome, and very happy to have me there. They were kind enough to offer me one a place to stay in one of the ships they had recently built,  and because I was in very much need of a place to stay. What a wonderful first day here in China. I can’t wait to explore the Yangtze even more.

Ending My Journey in Nanjing!

Wow, what a great start to a day! I just woke up and am writing now because Wafles made some delicious treat. I forget what he called it, but it had little squares and it was like a pastry. I told him he should start a business. Now that I’m awake, I’m going to go interview some villagers, because I really want to learn about what other amazing things happen this China, and more importantly, in Nanjing. I want to learn as much as I can before I have to leave. I just asked some villagers some questions. I asked them about their lifestyle, and all of them replied that much of it had to do with the Yangtze River. It is the main transportation system for the people living here. Wouldn’t that be awesome? A system where you can just boat to your friends house? Also, the Yangtze provides fertile land to the people living along it, so they can grow rice, a main source of food in China. The Yangtze is also a main trade route in China, which makes it economically important. “The Yangtze is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” said one man I asked. “I am blessed to wake up to it every day.” Wow, what a way to end my fantastic journey. I would definitely come back if I had the chance. I am now on a boat to go home. I really was wowed by all the people and things I’ve seen and met here.

A Day in Nanjing!

I have finally arrived in Nanjing. It is a beautiful city. Nanjing is the capital of Wu, which makes sense because it is very big. It is rumoured that after the Three Kingdoms are overthrown, this city is going to be turned into a big trade center with all kinds of valuable things. Anyway, I must literally be the luckiest person in all of China. I met the emperor of Wu, Sun Quan, formerly known as Emperor Da of Wu. He was heading down river to Wuhan. I only saws him for a short while because he was in a rush. I am going to a festival tonight. It is the spring, so obviously I’m going to a spring festival. A nice stranger invited me into his house, and I couldn’t decline because it would be bad manners. Plus, I didn’t have anywhere else to go. He was actually really nice. His name was Wafles. What a strange name. Anywho, he made delicious laba porridge. It is made in the spring festival, it involves glutinous rice, millet, seeds of Job's tears, jujube berries, lotus seeds, beans, longan and gingko. I have nothing else to tell you about my day, so I’ll talk about the current dynasty. I think this is going to be the most important dynasty of all of them. Maybe someone will write a book about it. Anyway, Soon I have to be going home. It will be sad if I have to leave this beautiful country. Wow, I’m really tired. I’m going to go to bed. Goodnight.

Stuck in Shanhai!

I am very annoyed right now. My transportation was somehow delayed, so I’m still stuck in Shanghai. But it all worked out for the better, because I got to meet the Shu Han general. His name is Liao Hua. I was on my way out of Shanghai, and he was lost I guess, so he asked me for directions. He seemed really embarrassed and desperate. His english was actually pretty good though. I helped him to where I was going. He said he would pay for the boat leading me out of Shanghai, but all the boats were out, so he promised me he would pay when the boats were back. It turns out he was going to get a job from Guan Yu, the guy who had a temple dedicated to him. I wonder what the rush is will all the people leaving Shanghai. Anyway, all the people in this area look very wealthy. Some are dressed in silk gowns, common in this era, and small hats and crowns too. Most are dressed in red, which is a symbol of good fortune and prosperity to the Chinese. I am so amazed by the many sights around me. If I leave, I would no doubt come back if I had the chance. Well, my boat is finally here, and I’m sick of waiting, so I’m going to get in. I will write again once I get to Nanjing. I can’t wait to see what awaits me in my journey ahead.

Arriving in Shanhai!

Hi! My name is Shark. I am in Shanghai, writing. The temperature is somewhat cold. There are many people here, and it is a very crowded place. I have asked a man what things to see here. I was lucky, I just assumed he spoke english, which he thankfully did.  He told me I should go see the temple for the three kingdoms dynasty general, Guan Yu. He is an important figure, and there are many shrines and temples dedicated to him. There are other temples here too, like Longhua temple, the biggest temple in Shanghai, and Jing’an temple, both made very recently. Most of the people here are Buddhist. Buddhism is a big thing here. However, there are still some Taoist people here, but mostly Buddhist. I’m hungry. The foods here are very good, but I already ate. I’m going to be leaving for a different city along the Yangtze River, called Nanjing. There is so much to see here! most people here speak Wu Chinese, so  I can’t understand most of them. I have seen many animals here too. I was very lucky to see a real Baiji Dolphin. They live along the Yangtze River, but they are still hard to find. The rulers right now are the rulers of the Three Kingdoms, which actually sometimes fight each other. I can’t imagine what political fights will be like in the future. Brrr, I’m cold. I should be going to head out of Shanghai and into Nanjing, where I’m sure I will meet new people and other things.