Shanxi - a passionate journey to the Yellow River

It was the river that really inspired me. I had previously visited several sections from Qinghai down to Henan and Shandong. Always I think of its role, of historically carrying and spreading the 'yellow earth' across lands where Chinese civilization had evolved. I thought of music, both concerto and folk music dedicated to its waters, lands and the people living along it. I thought of its origins high on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and how it followed a passage taking in so much of China's geography before just northeast of Dongying, in Shandong, it reaches the Bohai Gulf. There the river gradually deposits the sediments it has been carrying, slowly but steadily building up a delta of new land which some day will be reclaimed for agricultural use.

As I sat by its banks, I thought of what an incredible journey must await to follow the entire course of the Yellow River from its source to the sea. It was a memorable moment for me, on my personal lifetime journey through China to be beside that great river that warm summer afternoon in Shanxi. Unforgettable!