ABSTRACT
It all started out reasonably enough. My wife, Tina, and I, not having been anywhere except to the U.S. consulate in Shenyang in the past year, needed some rest and relaxation. So, as it happened, did our friend Janie, and her on-and-off-again and currently on-again boyfriend Leon, a New Zealand expatriate from Auckland. We put our heads together, and I came up with the brilliant idea of a visit to Xing Kai Hu (lake) right here in our own Heilongjiang Province. Heilongjiang means Black Dragon River. It borders Russian Siberia for most of the northern and eastern boundaries of this northeastern-most province of China (the Russians call it the Amur River). And if Black Dragon River isn’t a superior name for a province, not to mention river, I don’t know what is. Most Chinese provinces have more prosaic names in their native language, like “East Mountain Province” (Shandong) or “Venerable Wise Place to Invest” Province, and so on.
