WUHAN IS NOT LIKE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT IT People keep telling us NOT to visit Wuhan because it is hot, dirty, and boring. It is a working class city, a steeltown. Definitely not a tourist destination. Those denuciations only make it more tempting to visit because that's just what people in Canada say about our hometown, Hamilton. Wuhan has the reputation of being one of the three "furnaces" of China, which traditionally experience very hot tem...

I am the first person on deck this morning. It is 5:30 am and the dawn is rosy pink. Suddenly, a crew member brushes past me. He races down Deck 3, the exercise deck, along the green outdoor carpet, towards the stern. I walk a little faster to discover what's so pressing at 5:30 am. I turn the corner above the stern and witness the crewman raising the red flag of the People's Republic on the flagpole on the great Yangzi River. The river is green, the flag i...