SuSublime and mysterious! This is the Jing Gorge, one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. The Jing River meanders through a green, undulating massif, surrounded by farmland and small villages. Today, the region is one of the world’s leading producers of fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. And almost half of China’s aerospace industry is located here.

The Jing River meanders through a green, hilly massif surrounded by farmland and small villages in Chunhua County, China. The river flows for 455 km through a rural landscape before entering the Wei plain, the cradle of China.

The water of the Jing River comes from Mount Liupan and flows through #Gansu and #Shaanxi, where it reaches the capital Xi’an. A legend links its meanders to the mythical Dragon King.

Downstream, the great city of Xi’an, once known as “Eternal Peace”, was for centuries both the eastern end of the Silk Road and the center of the Chinese world.

Thirteen dynasties established their capitals here. Xi’an was the political center of #China and one of the world’s largest cities for a thousand years. We now know that it had ten times as many inhabitants as Rome or Constantinople at the time of Charlemagne, with two million.

A cosmopolitan city, Xi’an is still a crossroads of influence, with a Muslim community whose presence dates back to the Middle Ages, an ancient Chinese-style mosque and numerous Christian churches. There are Nestorians and many traces of trade between worlds.

The oldest Chinese human fossil was discovered near Lantian, partly revealed by the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

As with the Nile in North Africa, this is also where agriculture has been nourished by flooding, and where ancient pyramids were built.

Most are located within a 100 km radius of Xi’an.
Some are colossal in size, and rival the Mayan and Egyptian pyramids. The West has only recently discovered them.

Also found here is the Bingmayong (“Terracotta Army”), the tomb of the first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who established the system of writing and measurement still used in China today.

But this basin is also terribly fragile. Droughts, earthquakes, floods, famines…
It was in this province in 1556 that the deadliest earthquake in human history took place, killing some 830,000 people.

Today, the region is one of the world’s leading producers of fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. And almost half of China’s aerospace industry is located here.

I’ve chosen to show you this small, modest yet magnificent Jing River, a tributary of the Wei River, a tributary of the Yellow River, because it carries millennia of history, riches, whispers and dramas.

China still has secrets to reveal to the world.