Book Review: Before the Deluge, The Yangtze River and Three Gorges Dam, Deirdre Chetham, 2002

      Are you interested in modern China?  Have you read a newspaper lately?  Are you alive?  Do you care about air pollution?  Do you understand geography and geopolitics?  Have you ever read a book?
Hmmmm.  These questions cover a bit of modern discussion world wide.  As the US and China square off over international trade and its universal benefits, it behooves the modern reader to take a look at some history, specifically, the history of China at the turn of the 21st century 19 years ago.
Author Chetham has been studying and visiting China for over 20 years.   She has focused almost exclusively on the Yangtze River or Chiang Ching river(Long River).   The third longest river in the world after the Nile and the Amazon of Brazil, has played a significant role in Chinese history since time began ther almost 5000 years ago.   Long regarded as the access to China's interior regions in the West, it remains to this day as the super highway for commerce from the South China Sea to the largest city in China: Chiong Qing(Chungking in Cantonese).