28-Feb-2008 -- From 2001 to 2005 I worked in Shanghai and traveled all over China without knowing of the confluence project. So when I now went on a one week tour accompanying a Chinese pianist and a Norwegian cellist I decided to go for a few confluence points.

The first cp was near Nantong, a town just three hours drive northwest of Shanghai. In a rather groggy shape after an overnight flight from Europe I set our with Mr. XU Xu (driver) and Ms. MENG Ying Ying (Lena). The drive straight east from Nantong was easy. Just before E121 there is a concrete covered road which we took a few hundred meters south to another road going east for another few hundred meters where we parked the car and walked the last three hundred meters north to the cp.

Activities in the village seemed to slow down as the villagers watched us walking along a dike and as we entered a field of lettuce and cabbage. The required photos were taken. On the return back to the car the villagers, mostly old people, met us with great curiosity. I showed them the map, the GPS, a Google Earth satellite photo of their village, fields and canals, explained and explained while they confirmed that they understood (?). A woman was so thrilled that she said I could take a photo of her.

An earlier visitor to the cp commented on the three walled latrines. The answer I got was that they always had been like that. No foreign missionaries involved.

Ps. The time on the GPS is CET +7.00 Beijing time.