Daily Life in China                  

Levee:

    The plains in Central China get quite a bit of rain.  The big rivers overflow so levee's are built along the banks of most rivers.   Because of deforestation and farming water sweeps quickly across watersheds into the rivers.  The river levees keep going higher.  Backup levee's are built away from primary levees to contain breaks in primary levees.  They are are many secondary levees in the Changde area which is mostly a flat plain.  Other levees are built to bound a river to stop it's meandering.  Some of these get used in various ways.

   The levee tops are used for transportation.   This levee is one of several parallel levees that run east and west on the east side of Changde extending about 30km to the edge of Dong Ting Lake, China's largest lake, which is 400km long. 

    There are several large levee's in this area.  They are there to contain water and regulate water.  These levees are to contain floods and are away from large rivers.  The larger rivers run their own course.  These lesser levees are to tame lesser rivers by straighten them out and contain runoff channeled into them by canals out in the watershed.  

   There will be two levee's close together, several hundred meters apart that make a long reservoir.  The long thin reservoir is used for transportation, water resource for the surrounding farmland and as a fish resource.   There are more set of levee's which are 10-15km north and south.   They also run for about 30 km.  There are many levees of this type here.   In the large land area between sets of  levee's are few thousand small farms.  The farmers need water from the levee's at all times of year as crop land is continually being used all year long, especially for rice, the main crop here.

    A typical drop levee top road to an enclave of houses on the dry side of the levee.   

   Motorcycles are common here these days but just a few years ago were rare.  The only quick way to get around this area was and for many still is by boat.  This shot looks across to the opposite levee and is about the average width of this pair of levee's that run for 30 km.  There are 3 towns at the end of the three pair of levee's in this area.  If you want to go shopping or visit a relative you hail a boat.  From this spot which was in the middle of the levee you can go left to the small village or right to the main road to get a bus to one of the larger towns or cities.  

    The gal in the foreground came up from the village road and from the top of the levee hailed the boat in the water.  The boat was much further away when she waived her arm and I figured she did not have a prayer of being seen.  Within 5 seconds of her waiving the boat turned so sharply toward her the rear swung around and pointed up the canal.  The boatman corrected and headed directly for her.  

The levee bank looks about like this for the length of the levee.

These boats are cheap and there are several spread on the length of the canal at a time ferrying people and goods around.  They mostly go up and down.  For going across traffic there are boatmen in rowboats like below.

   Someone owns the rights to harvest fish along sections of the canal.  The posts hold up a net and there are places where the net can be dropped.  

   The rowboat at the bottom is a typical boat for getting people across the canal.  Guys or women hang out by the canal edge waiting for customers.

The canal net passage ways have to be manned; someone there to pull up the net when a boat toots it wants to be let through.  There's a rope going from the net to the shack.  The net manager hears the boat, interrupts the card game with his buddy and lowers the net rope attached to the turn style.  The net is weighted so drops low enough for the boat to bass.  After the boat passes he hand winds the turn style to bring the net back up to position.