Wesley

Blog 1:  I have just reached the Yangtze river at last. I traveled all the way from Shanghai, my home, in search of wealth near the source of the Yangtze river.  Both of my parents are farmers, but many of the crops have caught disease and are now coming to a stop. I have come to start a new life, in hopes of money and more food. At the end of this journey, I wish to have enough money to be able to provide for both my parents and I. I will begin my travels at Suzhou. My friend, Olivia, lives in Suzhou, I hope I will be able to see her.  As I arrive, I can already see parts of a big wall being built. Emperor and ruler Qin Shi has decided to build a wall made of stone called the Great Wall of China. Qin Shi says the wall will help with defence, so no one bad will be able to get in. I agree with this, but it is a very long and loud job. I have discovered that many people live in Suzhou, many more than Shanghai. As I walk down the road, there are people selling things like fish, chicken and shrimp. There are also tall buildings everywhere. This must be what it is like to live in a town so near to the Yangtze river. I have never seen so many fish in a town. As I descend towards Olivia’s house, the sun starts to set. I finally reach her house. She greets me and welcomes me to the comfort of her house. This is my first time visiting Suzhou, so I pray for safety and and good health. Olivia and I pray to Buddha for about an hour, now it is time to rest. I have told Olivia about my travels and she has decided to join me. I am reassured, since Olivia knows the town and river better than I. it is time for me to sleep, I need a lot of rest for the journey ahead. This is where my story begins.

Blog 2:   

This is my second day in Suzhou. Olivia is not awake yet, so I decide to pray. I pray for happiness and health for both Olivia and I. My journey will start this afternoon, once Olivia wakes up. I have lit candles for a warm glow. Finally, I can hear Olivia waking up. Olivia and I packed our bags yesterday night, so we can start the trek.  As we walk out onto the busy streets of Suzhou, I wonder about if I have chosen the right path, to follow the Yangtze river. Should I have just stayed in Shanghai? I sure hope this is the right decision. As we walk out of the city, I can already feel the mean, hot sun staring down at me. At last, we reach the outskirts of Suzhou. I can smell the river and imagine all of the creatures living in the underwater realms. Fish, algae, shrimp, and scallops are what appear in my mind. There is a small shop right next to the river renting boats with a guide. I have enough money, so Olivia and I decide to rent one. Once we meet the guide, I can tell right away that she is nice. Our guide’s name is Han.  We climbed into the boat and began our ride. I remember telling the guide where our destination was, it ended up being a whopping 310 yuan, that’s 50 american dollars! Olivia and I dug up the money, luckily. We had traveled around 400 miles at that point and were going at a steady pace. About 2 hours later, we had reached Wuhan. I was very relieved, the guide had gossiped the whole ride, which had become annoying quickly. Olivia and I had grown suspicious of the ruler Qin Shi, though, because word is going around some people discussed how he was arrogant and got buried alive by him. I hope it is not true, but no one can be sure. This definitely set me on edge. The sun was already lower than it had been half an hour ago, so Olivia and I went in search of a place to sleep. We quickly found a building called “Sunset Paradise” which looked ok. I paid for a small room and we both trudged in. Finally, we prayed to Buddha. We prayed and prayed and prayed. I almost fell asleep while praying I was so tired! Now it is time for me to sleep, who knows what’s ahead!

Blog 3:

Olivia woke me up the next morning and we hurriedly made our beds and packed our luggage. We walked out of Sunset Paradise and bustled along the streets. Wuhan wasn’t as crowded as Shanghai, but there were still many people. We saw many boat rental shops, but I wanted to make sure there were no annoying guides like last time! We went into the shop, paid for a guided ride, and paid 75 yuan. Before we ventured inside, both of us prayed briefly for safety along the trip. 8 hours later, we had arrived safely at Chongqing. Luckily, our guide was very quiet and kept to himself. We asked for a nice place to stay, and the guide recommended a tavern called Wooden Shack five streets away. The city was buzzing with workers, all helping with the Great Wall of China. I could hear people in a nearby church praying to Buddha and others walking around buying groceries. We had reached Wooden Shack at last! We had heard from the guide Qin Shi was now burning books to terrify people, the guide’s brother was a writer. How scary! I really hope these crimes stops soon. Burning books is just wasting money! And burying people? I’m beginning to grow scared of Qin Shi. Why are all of these unnecessary things happening? Oh well, I’ll think about it more tomorrow. I can see Olivia’s eyes are red, which indicates we should get some rest. I hope all of these things stop happening quickly! Goodnight.

Blog 4:  

As I woke up, I could already see Olivia packing once more and people praying to Buddha. I quickly prayed, I forgot to last night! I can’t believe I forgot! I packed my bags and searched for a place to eat. We walked into a shop and ordered rice and fish. I paid 5 yuan and walked out. I could see people selling everything you could imagine, from rice to squirrel meat. Today we will venture near the source of the Yangtze river. There were many fish even here, in Chongqing, at least 10 miles from the source of the river! Olivia paid for a boat this time to keep, so we could go fishing once near the source. We got on the boat and started the journey. The boat ride was 2 hours, 6 miles. Once we got there, I immediately started looking for fish. There were tons! I felt so lucky to have come here, Olivia and I prayed to Buddha for all of our luck for 2 hours. Now, this is where my adventure ends. I have traveled the whole length of the river, had fun doing it, and have found a fortunate place to start anew. I will plan to bring my parents here, and maybe even start a family. Olivia and I will live here together for a while, and then she will go back to Shanghai. Once again, thank you Buddha, and goodbye.

Henry:

Yangtze Blog Posts #1:

Today was the first day of my journey, Today I would meet up with my cousin to travel 6,300 kilometres to Shanghai in search of fertile land next to the Yangtze river. My cousin was a craftsman and hadn’t traveled much but had studied the layout of the land for about a month and had found a route that could hopefully brings us near some fertile land. We spent the night at a friend’s house and after we ate dinner prayed to Buddha for 30 minutes for good health on our journey before going to bed. Again when we got up in the morning we prayed to Buddha this time for finding nice land at the end of our journey. The friend that we stayed was a fisherman as a lot of people along the Yangtze river. My family was made up of farmers but as the population of our town grew other people became farmers stealing the business. Now my family’s last hope rested with me, I had been sent by the Buddha to find a place for my family to settle down and take up fishing and farming in a less populated area. But the land also had to be fertile and close to civilization to trade with other people in exchange for food and medicine. Since the silk road had not been invented yet there were no distinct routes for the traders to travel, so they would usually travel from village to village in order to sell their goods. Their is a long journey up ahead but I know that if I remember to pray to the Buddha everyday he will guide my away from disaster and into the light.

Yangtze Blog Posts #2:

After the first week of just walking and stopping just to eat I had begun to wonder if we should just stay where we are and chose a different profession. But then I remembered why I was the one doing this and why we had to do it, I was the only one in the family who could work, my mother could barely walk, my father spent all his time taking care of her and my kids were 2 and 3. My wife had died at childbirth, and even if we someone else to work we would need a new place to settle down because we could not afford land anywhere near our village but maybe we could in other places and that was why I was traveling along the Yangtze in search of better land with my cousin who had the same problem. We were going to pick up some canoes but we were running way behind, and if we couldn’t get to the shipyard by tomorrow then we would have to turn around. All in all things were not going well. We then got on our knees and prayed to Buddha for 2 hours straight. After the two hours I had an idea, since the current was so strong we could bundle up lots of branches and then float down the river on them. We set to work, my cousin, Swai Le gathered the branches while I tied them together. It took a full hour and a half but we were pleased with our work. We then prayed to Buddha one more time and then jump on our makeshifts rafts and set off down the river.

Yangtze Blog Posts #3:

Buddha had definitely heard our prayers, we are now 129 miles further downstream than before and progressing smoothly straight through the Shangtze river. We then stopped at a restaurant to gulp down some rice and vegetables before setting off again down the Yangtze. We had to stop again on our way to replenish our supplies and when we did we got half prices because of the dragon festival that was going on in the village to honor the dragon god so he wouldn’t get mad and destroy their village. We past hundreds of rice patties with their owners working away in the fields trying to finish the harvest before the sun set and they had to go home. The sun was setting as we set up a camp down the river under a shelter of trees.

We ate the rice that we had saved from our last stop and fell asleep under the stars. When we got up we prayed to Buddha for 30 minutes before setting off down the river once more. For once Buddha had not heard our prayers because we had reached a waterfall, we would usually slid down on our rope but we had had to sell our rope for food and money when we passed the last town. We started walking to the side hoping to find a way around the waterfall. It took us 2 hours but we eventually found a way down the waterfall.  My cousin looked at me when we got down, in his hand was our food pack and it was nearly empty. Even if we did find a nice place to settle we would still have to go back and back again to bring our families here. My cousin started crying, I couldn’t blame him, there was little hope for us now. We prayed to Buddha for 2 and a half intense hours this time in hope of being successful in our journey. Then we rationed out what little food we had left and fell asleep.

Yangtze Blog Posts #4:

The world somehow became brighter when we woke up, in the darkness of last night we hadn’t noticed we had gone to sleep under a patch of wild apple trees, there were apples on the ground next to us when we woke up, called out to be eaten. We ate about 15 apples each before filling our food pack to the brim, and because we were next to the Yangtze, fresh water was not a problem.  We then set off again towards a promised land. As I walked I thought about what we were going to do once we reach a promised land, if we reached a promised land. My cousin would probably stay there while I would make my way back as fast as I can and bring my family on the journey back. We had gathered some apple seeds and hoped to plant them once we reached the promised land. As we made our way across rice fields I noticed in front of me a hill and after that a valley, I couldn’t see the valley but I assumed it was there because of the mountains in the distance but not right after the hill. As we climbed the hill we noticed how the ground got greener and more fertile the farther we got. We climb the last few feet and then looked down on the horizon. Indeed there was a valley and if any land should be promising it was this one, there was a part of the Yangtze river that had cut off of the main body of water and traveled through this valley before rejoining the Yangtze. There were dozens of patches of wild apple trees growing near the river and the weather was perfect, a nice warm breeze. We had truly found a godblessed place.