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.