Then...

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HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY SUSAN--MY MOTHER AND CO-TAURUS. I would have called you but do not have international phone access. I would have written to you but did not have internet access. I HAVE BEEN IN XIANGFAN OR ON A TRAIN SINCE THE 27TH. I HAD NO CONTROL WHATSOEVER OVER ANY OF THIS.

I spent the day in Xiangfan with my Chinese guide trying to sort out my minor consular issues. I don't need to say too much about it. It was another series of errands, this time to the police station (to several police stations) in which I had only a vague and limited sense of what was really going on. In the end, the officer we needed to talk to was not in today, and it turns out I don't need to show up at all. So, to tell the truth, I still don't know what I've been doing here for the last 48 hours, or why.

We did get to eat lots of food--good, good food; all-expenses-paid food--and walk around the Xiangfan's ancient city. There was a museum that we somehow came too late to go in, as well as an ancient wall and moat around which the good people of Xiangfan have made into tranquil greenspace. During a war a thousand years ago, the women of the city built the wall, or part of the wall, after discovering that the men were all either 1. fighting some distant war (sorry but charity begins at home, guys) 2. all been killed off, or 3. were somehow just too useless to do it themselves. I don't actually know which the correct story is. Please circle the best answer.

Also, the ancient Xiangfan moat is the widest in all of Asia.

It was very nice. I will post photos. Then I will go back home tomorrow morning. Early. Fifteen hours by train.

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Photos

Tranquil Greenspace
Around the moat

Comments

[Susan]

The photo of the riverside reminds me of Cincy's Yeatman's cove, with the curvy steps leading down to the Ohio.