My name is Ying Chang, I am Chinese. I used to work in a newspaper company. I was a reporter. I have a friend in China. Her name is Rose. She works in a medical magazine company. She is an editor. Both Rose and I like to travel. When we had vacation time we might travel together.

China is a huge country. It has a long history and has many beautiful views. I would like to write about one trip we had together in 1996. It was a interesting experience for us. We visited the Chingjiang River in southern China and some cities on the river.

We bought two tickets to Yichang first. It was midnight when we arrived there by train. The train goes through the mountains. The city was built on the side of a huge mountain. If you want to go to the downtown area, you must go down the mountain. We had to go down many stairs. At that time we felt we were at the end of the world. We felt that we could touch the sky.

“It’s so great!” Rose yelled.

We took many pictures .

On that morning, we got two tickets from Yichang to Chongqing for trip on a big ship. The ship would stop, and we could visit each place.

On the next day, we stopped at a pier to view the other side of the river. There is a beautiful and sad folk story about a mountain across the river.

A long long time ago. God had a daughter. She was a very beautiful girl. God loved her very much. One day, she went to the garden, from there she could see the earth below. She saw a human. He was a handsome man. She wanted to meet him. She became a woman who could walk on the earth. They met, and they fell in love. He was a king. She helped him in his work. But he didn’t know she was immortal.

At the end, her father found her. Even though he loved her but he couldn’t bear it that his daughter loved a human. He tried to take her back to heaven. She refused to go with him. She wanted to stay with her lover. Her father got angry. He told them that he would punish them. He turned her into stone. The man continued to love her in all of his lives thereafter. But she could never become mortal again. Now, one can see that this mountain looks like a beautiful woman. Her name is “Shen Nu Feng”

Two days later, we stopped in “Feng Du Ghost city”. Most Chinese also believe there is heaven and hell. People sculptured lots of ghosts to put into a big church. They looked very terrible. There were many styles of ghosts and ways to torture bad people. Some people were put into a big hot oil pot, some people had to climb a hill of knives, and some people were repeatedly burned... They looked very tortured. This reminded you to do good works.

Now the Chinese government is building a huge dam in the Chingjiang River. Many beautiful views are lost under the flowing waters. It was sad, that city was several hundred years old. We have lost it forever.

Next, we stopped in Chongqing. That is a big city in Southwest China. It has long history and was also built on a mountain, same as San Francisco. The air is wet every October, and made us comfortable. Everyone there likes hot chili and other spicy food. We saw a interesting situation when we ate lunch in a small restaurant. Couple sat next to our table. They ate “hot pot”. The girl put many chilis into the soup.

We saw the soup turn black, but she yelled to the owner of the restaurant:

“More chili! No taste; No hot!”.

Oh , my god! It was terrible. It was funny. We just ordered one dish which was too hot; we drank lots of ice water.

This city is stylish. There are many fashions from Hong Kong. We bought many clothes. It’s a girl’s thing.

We stayed in that city for two days. Our last stop on that trip was Chengdu. It is Sichuan’s capital. There is a very famous Buddha in this city.

There are three rivers go together into the Changjiang River. For many years, people have wanted to contral the river. They carved a very huge Buddha from the mountain. They spend many years to finished. When people stand on the Buddha, they look like a small mole on the Buddha’s body.

Now , the government has stopped people from standing on the Buddha., because it’s dangerous.

Two days later, we climbed the “E Mei Shan”. It’s also very famous. Many books and movies document the beginning of “Kong Fu”on this mountain. At the top of this mountain, we saw the sunrise one morning. It was so cold, we had to put on thick clothes, but we enjoyed it. When the sunrise moved slower slower, we forgot our worries, our pains and our sadness at that moment!

This trip lasted two weeks. Even though we a felt tired, we enjoyed it. We learned lot during the trip. It made us happy!