Liede Bridge over the Pearl River in Guangzhou (China)

These indistinct pains at the city’s margins
like light from inlaid faux pearls, they are not mine
perhaps they belong to you, left behind by the whore called Bella.
These exquisite nights recalling sugarcane groves or thin palmettos
breathing Pearl River mist, they are not mine
perhaps they belong to you, hidden behind the back of the moon.
These plains that have never been marked on any map
and on which only half-built constructions rise, they are not mine
but belong to him and her, masked mendicants with silver bowls.

Poem by Liu Waitong

Haiyin Bridge spanning the Pearl River in Guangzhou (China)

In ancient Guangzhou, there was a time when a drought lasted many years and people struggled to avoid starvation. One day, suddenly, a holy melody spread in the air and a five-colour cloud drifted in the sky from the South China Sea. Then five gods, who were wearing five different colours of clothing and rode five different coloured goats, appeared with the cloud, each one held a sheaf of wheat with six stalks. They gave the wheat and the goats to the people, and went away. People spread the grains to the ground. From then on, Guangzhou had regular winds and rains and rich harvests, and the five god goats became stone goat, standing on the hill.

Legend of Guangzhou

Liede Bridge over the Pearl River in Guangzhou, Guangdong province (China)

...the four dragons determined to do good for the people forever, they turned themselves into four rivers, which flowed past high mountains and deep valleys, crossing the land from the west to the east and finally emptying into the sea. And so China's four great rivers were formed, the Heilongjiang, the Yellow River, the Yangtze, and the Pearl River.

Ancient Chinese Legend