After lunch, we discussed our plan for the remaining day.
"Why don't you guys go tour Dujiangyan Park (都江堰)?" Larry suggested.
"What about you?" we asked
"I would go with you guys except that I forgot my senior citizen card. It let's me get in for free."
"Just pay then. It's only 60 RMB."
"I'm not paying 60 RMB. I come here free so often that there's no way I'm paying to see the same sights. It's not a big deal; take your time, I'll just hang out here by the river until you guys are done."
"What about Mt. Qingcheng (青城山)?"
"Just come back here afterwards. We'll go together then."
And so Baba and I headed off to the entrance of Dujiangyan:
Chinese Chess Pieces in the square outside the entrance:
One question that had bothered us was we didn’t understand how Dujiangyan really worked. How could a static construction project help control floods and provide adequate irrigation under dynamic conditions? We tried to look for information on the pamphlets, but couldn’t find any. So instead, we headed into the park first.
"Wow, this park looks fantastic," Baba remarked.
"They must have cleaned up pretty well after the earthquake."
"It has been six months. "Why don't you take a picture of that building over there?"
We continued down the middle road towards the fountain:
The gardens on either side:
Fountain:
Continuing on down, the road was lined with statues. I only recognized the first one, which was a statue of Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮):
All the statues were of people who had helped improve and maintain Dujiangyan, originally designed and built by Li Bing (李冰). Baba was not familiar with most of them either, but there was one that stood out:
"It's Ding Bao Zhen (丁寶楨)!" Baba exclaimed.
"Who is he?"
"He was the governor of Sichuan. However, at one point, he was the head of Shandong Province (山東) during the Qing Dynasty (清朝). The story goes that there was once a powerful but corrupt eunuch serving in the court. Using his power, the eunuch would solicit bribes from the highest bidder to help make policy decisions. Unfortunately, it was common (though perhaps unspoken) knowledge that he was Empress Cixu's (慈禧太后) favorite, no one would dare touch him. One time, on Empress Cixu's orders, the eunuch entered Shandong Province, despite the fact that eunuchs weren't allowed to travel outside the palace grounds. However, upon entry, Ding Bao Zhen had him arrested immediately and executed! He then sent a memorandum to the royal court, proclaiming, 'Your servant has captured and disposed of the evil eunuch who violated Your Highness’s laws by leaving the palace grounds.' The Empress was upset but was unable to do anything about it since he only followed the laws set forth, and so she even had to thank him and issue a memorandum in his honor."
Afterwards, Ding Bao Zhen apparently became governor of Sichuan. The famous (and frequently Americanized) Sichuanese dish Kung Pao Chicken (宮保雞丁) is named after him.
We continued on, walking all around the park, and then to the actual irrigation system. Unfortunately, much of the paths to the temples on higher grounds were closed off since repair and reconstruction operations are going on to get the park back to where it was before the earthquake. However, these pictures from my trip in 2004 better shows what the irrigation system looks like from a more aerial view:
The centerpiece in the Dujiangyan system is the very first part, known as the "fish mouth" (魚嘴). It was slightly cracked from the earthquake, but still functional:
The fishmouth somehow divides up the river into the correct proportions, inviting the right amount of water to go to one side for irrigation purposes, and the rest to allow excess water to continue on.
Two other important components of Dujiangyan are the Feishayan (飛沙堰) and the Baopingkou (宝瓶口), and the latter is shown below:
Because Dujiangyan splits up the river into different streams, there were a considerable number of bridges to cross when going from one part to another. There was at least one concrete bridge:
And a couple rope bridges:
Things were a little different than I remembered it, but my memory was a bit hazy. The most noticeable difference is the inaccesssibility of all the temples in the park. One of the most prominent temples that had collapsed was ErWang Temple (二王廟), dedicated the Li Bing and his son:
Closer up:
Compare it to 2004:
Near ErWang Temple were signs illustrating the damage to Dujiangyan:
Huge progress must have been made in the last six months.
Afterwards, we headed back to the park, taking another route out to exit:
There we saw a lake, where people were feeding lots of orange fish. The number of fish crowding around the feeding area was frightening.
We then went through a garden, where there were miniature trees and small streams & waterfalls, well framed by the Chinese garden architecture pieces.
After we finished, we left the park, but Baba and I still wasn’t sure how Dujiangyan worked.
"Why don't we go hire a tour guide," I suggested.
"But we already left the park!"
"It doesn't matter. Let's find out how much they cost, and just have them explain it to us."
And so instead of leaving clueless, we went to the counter and got a tour guide for 60 RMB, even though we weren't heading back into the park. First, she showed us a model:
She started to explain: "There are three main parts to the Dujiangyan system: 1) the Fish Mouth at the front which separates the waters and the silt correctly, 2) Feishayan (Flying Sand Weir), which allows excess water to drain out via a dam, and 3) Baopingkou, which is the channel that distributes water to the farmlands, but has a narrow entrance that creates a whirlpool which carries excess water over to Feishayan."
"So why is it that the Fish Mouth can separate water at the right proportions regardless of whether the water level is high or low?"
"It’s because one stream was narrower and deeper, while the other is wider and shallower. During normal times, most of the water would flow into the narrow and deep stream (the inner stream), and irrigate the fields. However, when it floods, the majority of the excess water would go to the wide stream since the narrow one would be saturated. Also, the wider stream would carry 80% of the silt away."
We were enlightened. The design was genius.
"You mentioned that Feishayan was essentially a dam that could allow excess water to drain out. How did they dam it before modern dams?"
"It was with the stones tied up in the bamboo sacks that you must've have seen in the park," she replied.
"Oh those things!"
"Yes, they simply cut the rope holding the sacks and let the river carry them away when the dam needed to be opened. They can close it again by reattaching new sacks."
Though unorthodox in our use of tour guides, we got our money's worth. It's probably easier to explain how it all works via the model rather than walking around all over the park anyhow.
When we got back to discuss our next step with Larry, we saw he was talking with a lady who was selling tea. They had been talking about all sorts of topics for over an hour!
"Did Larry buy any tea from you," I asked.
"No... I tried to negotiate with him, but my lowest price was 100 RMB for 4 斤 (2 kg), but he would only pay 80 RMB, so it didn't happen."
"Oh really! Larry! I'm ashamed of you!" Baba exclaimed. "You've been talking this woman's ear off for an hour and you still won't give her any business!"
"Come on, John, you know I can't compromise on my principles," Larry joked.
"I'll tell you what - why don't I pay the 20 RMB difference?" Baba suggested. "Larry can pay the 80 RMB he thinks the tea is worth, and you will get your 100 RMB!"
It was a brilliant idea, and Larry, caught by surprise, bursted into spontaneous laughter. It was obvious he really didn’t want the tea, but could not say so after he had already named his price. We all cracked up, including the sales lady.
"You know we just talked to a tour guide about Dujiangyan - it was 60 RMB for 15 minutes!" wheezed Baba through the laughter, trying to catch his breath. "You got yourself a great deal - you're only paying 80 RMB but you got to talk to her for over an hour!"
Larry couldn't respond as he couldn't stop laughing. We paid 100 RMB in total, and were left with 2 kg of tea that we didn't know what to do with. After all, we could drink this tea for 3 years.
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