Ten thousand miles of sand lined the Nine-Twists Yellow River, its waves scouring, its winds tossing, all the way from heaven's edge.
Now let us ascend straight to the Milky Way, together to the homes of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl.
Some said the great river's waters came from heaven; others said they were bound for the Milky Way.
Of course, neither was wrong.
Anyone who came to the Yellow River's banks and saw that great river, with neither its source nor its destination in sight, would surely think it a river of heaven.
Where the Western Sea, Longyou, Western Kham, and Ba-Shu met, there was an even more extraordinary sight, called the First Bend of the Nine-Twists Yellow River.
The Yellow River rose on the Western Sea plateau, crossing mountains and ridges as it flowed southeast from the northwest. When it reached the junction of the four regions, just as it seemed about to enter Ba-Shu, it abruptly doubled back northwest into the Western Sea.
That hook-shaped curve was where the First Bend lay.
The great river surged, turning sharply and pouring back against its course. One needed only imagine it to know how tremendous the waves crashing against the banks must be, their foam heaped like snow.
Yet the grandeur of the First Bend did not end there. Right where the great river turned, another mighty river, the White River, came from the south and flowed north into the Yellow River.
The Yellow River came from the west, carrying mud and sand in its rolling, turbid waves, while the White River was like creamy jade, tranquil and graceful as a maiden, flowing in from the south. The two waters met, churning and swirling, yet even after joining, their yellow and white remained distinct. Only half a mile