You're listening to an airwave media podcast.

Have you ever gazed in wonder at The Great Pyramid?

Have you marveled at the golden face of Tudankamun, or admired the delicate features of Queen

Nethartiti. If you have, you'll probably like the History of Egypt podcast. Every you get your podcasting fix.

Come, let me introduce you to the world of China.

Episode 205, Hong Jo, a city by the bay.

I have never traveled to Hong Joe's West Lake, but seemed to have met it in my dreams someplace, a vague and

indistinct expanse of water and clouds where lotus leaves merge with weeping willow branches.

Now that I see Lake Abundant lying before me, 10,000 hectares of blue-glazed tiles, I would

love to address this question to Master Sue.

Is Hong Jo's West Lake better than that of the West Lake of Injo? More than a week I've been

suffering from summer heat when this marvelous lake splashes its light on my

eyes. I suddenly suspect I'm in the middle of some painting and wonder if I might have just awakened from a dream.

Whatever is the meaning of human existence that I should race around frantically for four score years

brown dust buries the head of my horse and I labor on and on without knowing

I'm exhausted. Alas, I cannot sprout an immortal's wings. I cannot avoid the trammels of the mundane world. I desire to reserve a

plot of land for myself, some property where I can make plans for the approach of old age. Clouds

flowed at leisure around the lake. I cannot sleep because I long

for them. Gulls and herons I just vowed to become a reckless. Please fly up and

announce my intentions to heaven.

A trip to Lake Abundant by Huang Zun-Chien,

circa 1870.

...