Levels1-2 RiverTown Reading

Peter Hessler was a Peace Corps volunteer who taught English in Fuling, China from 1996 to 1998. When he returned to the region to visit, he found it had changed significantly due to the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. He met with some of his former students who had gone on to different careers and lives, including becoming a government official or starting a successful business. However, he also discovered that for some locals like fishermen Huang Zongming and his brother, their lives had remained much the same.

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Levels1-2 RiverTown Reading

Uploaded by

Christopher Salazar Bavines

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Life/ Levels 1–2

Reading practice

Return to River Town

From 1996 to 1998, Peter Hessler was a Peace Corps volunteer. He was an English teacher
in China. He worked in a region near the Yangtze River. It is now part of the Three Gorges
Dam. Last year, he returned to the region on a visit.

I am in the White Crane Ridge Underwater Museum. It’s a very strange museum—it’s under
130 feet of water on the side of the Three Gorges Dam.* The director of the museum is
Huang Dejian. I knew him before the museum existed and before the Three Gorges Dam
existed. I taught English at the local college in the town of Fuling. Fuling was quiet and
isolated. There wasn’t a highway or a railroad. The river ferry to the city (Chongqing) took
seven hours. Foreigners were very rare. When I ate my lunch in the town center, a crowd
often came to watch me. The city had one escalator and one nightclub. There weren’t any
traffic lights. I didn’t know anybody with a car.

From 1996 to 1998, I worked at Fuling Teacher’s College. My students came from rural
homes but they wanted to be English teachers. I learned many things from my students.
They helped me to understand people’s experiences of moving from the countryside to big
cities. My students didn’t have much money, but they were optimistic and they had
opportunities.

During my visit, I meet about 15 of my old students. They tell me about their old classmates.
Many of them have left Fuling. One is a government official in Tibet; another started a taxi
company and became a millionaire. One woman is a radio host. Another now teaches
English to the children of rich factory owners. My old students are interested in analyzing
their society. One student, Emily, tells me about her rich cousin. She says that he is richer
now but he isn’t happier.

My last meeting on this visit is with Huang Zongming and his brother Zongguo. When I lived
here, they were fishermen. When the first stage of the dam was completed, they left their
home. I was sure that their lives were changed forever. But now I discover that everything is
almost the same for them. They are still fishermen. The fishing on the river is still good. The
dam has not changed some things in Fuling.

*The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River stretches for nearly 1.6 miles and is
the largest concrete structure on Earth. It’s five times as wide as the Hoover Dam in
the United States and is the world’s biggest power station.