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.