Yellow Sea

I have now swum in the Yellow Sea. Before my 16 hour train ride south to Nanjing, then a couple of hours more to Yangzhou, I wanted something refreshing. I really started to warm up to Qingdao but the sea dampened that ardour somewhat as it was cool. I have taken to cold showers so really it was just more of the same. That makes having swum in the Adriatic, the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Atlantic, the Pacific and now in Asia. Not a tsunami in sight but who ever sees them coming anyway? Yangzhou is a city of canals. The Yangtze is just south of here and the Grand Canal just east. The town has aspects of Amsterdam to it. It is cleaner this morning now that the coolie in the hat (who shyed away from being photographed yesterday) cleaned out the dead dog just metres away from where last evening I rinsed my hands after getting water melon (yellow meat) juice all over them. Yesterday was eventful. The railway sleeper journey observing rice paddies and wheat harvest as we went. Navigating Nanjing railway station a real chore (it is being remade). Trying to direct the tricycle taxi driver to the Foreign Experts Hotel an endurance in 33 degree heat, checking in to a beautiful room on campus a delight, eating the water melon the best thing all day although it was nearly topped by the fight inside the confines of the buddhist temple. It had elements of Christ and the moneychangers. Merchants were at each others throats and started breaking pottery over each others' heads. The two policemen acquitted themselves well. What will to-day bring? The train journey was special and it may be my next post if it is not relegated because of something more interesting.