Li

In 2009, I saw an exhibit at the Huntington Library in Pasadena where they had unfurled the full length of a Qing era scroll by an artists named Wang Hui entitled Ten Thousand Li Up the Yangtze.

“Li” is an old Chinese unit measuring about a third of an English mile, “ten thousand” is poetic Chinese for “a lot” and “Yangtze” is the Western name for the river which the Chinese simply call 长江 (Chángjiāng meaning “Long River.”)

I pored over every inch of the 53 foot scroll, from where the river debouches into the East China Sea at Shanghai, up through the Three Gorges, and upriver all the way to its headwaters in Tibet.

Ever since seeing that scroll, I’ve been obsessed with sailing up the Yangtze myself.