A 14-foot by 14-foot shaft, or downwell, located downstream of the intake structure permits flow to fall approximately 36 feet to a pool Torraed by a 10-foot deep rock trap.

Hibiscus Tower was located in the northwestern corner of the present-day city of Chen-chiang on the south bank of the Yangtze. Near Chen-chiang is the Grand Canal, which then as now ran northward and, during the T’ang, formed a vital link between the Yangtze in the south and the Yellow River in the north.

The pens are equipped with ‘pig-creeps', the porcine equivalent of cat-flaps, which allow the piglets access.

As quietly as if I were practicing to join a sleuth of bears, I crept out the door and went on home, eventually winding up in the garage…