On the shore of her imagination, a fi gure emerged as a deep thinker with a distant voice of an archaeologist. Why is the river named Han River?
Suddenly, the sea turned into the river, the shore became the Phoenix Tower on the other side of the arched bridge. Mei gazed down into the muddy water, and the familiar yet strange voice echoed.
“It was called the Bad River. More directly, the Crocodile River. Because once upon a time there were many crocodiles in this river. Only after Han Yu, a great Tang poet, who was exiled here as the governor, had all the crocodiles killed, the river could become alive again. He had even written a poem about the killing, something like ‘crocodiles look bigger than the boats’. You too should get to know Han Yu. He was a noble character who is still highly respected in our town. Like the river was renamed after him as Han River; the mountain as Han Mountain; the temple as Han Wen Gong Temple; and the school as Han Chanli Primary School.”
