Immediately after our recent return to China, we traveled north to visit some friends in Sichuan province. While there, we spent an afternoon visiting the old city of DuJiangYan:
The tourism bureau was kind enough to post some guidelines in Chinese and English to help us behave in a civilized manner:
This city is famous for a 2200 year old irrigation/river diversion project, an amazing feat of engineering that has kept the city of Chengdu flood-free ever since. It took eight years for workers to manually open the channel to the left of the temple:
The flow rate of this river is huge (see video here: DuJiangYan) 
There are 3D images throughout the town to describe the construction process, with some more lifelike than others:
Speaking of flooding, heavy rainfall in our city recently illustrates the challenges of drainage management. On the street behind our school, water flows up from the “sanitary sewer” and down into the storm sewer:
On that same theme, I recently completed re-grouting the tile in our guest bathroom. A year ago when we moved in, it was already stained and crumbling:
It now looks and feels much better:
To close this “wet” blog, here’s a photo of an advertisement in the airport for a new, exclusive neighborhood. I wonder if there might be a better word to convey the image of gentle waves rolling ashore at your bay-front home…
I do hope that you are not “coveting little advantages” or “forcefully taking photos with foreign guests.” What memories signs like that bring back.
I’m glad to know what constitutes civilized tourism behavior. If I ever visit, I’ll be sure not to chase or throw things to hit animals and I will be sure to resist feudal activities. (The new grout looks good. Makes you wonder what THEY used for grout.)
That construction image is indeed lifelike. Fascinating. I was not aware that denim trousers were used in China 2200 years ago.
not really sure how they got “repulse bay” out of the chinese characters, which actually have a literal meaning of “build create, shallow river bend.” But I do think “repulse bay” has a nice ring to it 🙂
Looks like it would make for a fun kayak trip at some point… (the river, not the sewers)
Everyone has such witty comments, so I’m not even going to try 😉 But I do think that house looks like a perfect retirement home, where all of the grandchildren could come visit!