A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Kiriyama Book Prize In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society. Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze" by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Flowing over 6275 km (3900 miles) from one end of China to the other, the Yangtze is vast, varied, and mysterious, like China itself. It rises in the highlands of Tibet, where glaciers drip and ooze to create a network of icy channels that join to form what the Chinese call simply Chang Jiang, the Long River. From here it snakes and cascades its way through some of the world's most spectacular scenery - precipitous mountains, narrow gorges, and lush lowlands of eastern China, made fertile by the mud spread by the river's frequent flooding. "Yangtze" follows the river on this fascinating and varied course. As it does so it explores many aspects of the river that have intrigued Chinese and westerners alike. It looks at the river's unique wildlife, from the dazzling colors of rhododendrons and camellias on its banks to the endangered creatures, such as the baiji river dolphin, that dwell in or on the banks of its waters. It describes the teeming human activity along the river - the fishing, farming, and trade that make it a lifeline and a livelihood for millions. And it looks at the river's role in some of the turning points in Chinese history, such as the wars of the Three Kingdoms Period, the culture of the Tang dynasty, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Long March of Mao and his communist allies. Finally, "Yangtze" looks at the changes and challenges affecting the river today, for the Yangtze stands at a turning point. The world's biggest civil engineering project, the construction of the Three Gorges dam across the river, is nearing completion. China's government hopes that the enormous dam will control the river's floods, open up further reaches to big ships, and generate hydro-electricity. Opponents of the scheme point to the damage to the environment, the human costs, and the enormous risks involved. Beautifully illustrated with outstanding photographs and specially created maps, "Yangtze" pictures the river at a cr.