Saturday after soccer practice we took a day trip with some friends to the mountains outside of Chengdu to a place called Dujiangyan. It is the oldest irrigation system still in use today. It was created in the 4th century AD. Not only was it a beautiful walk down the mountain, but it was amazing to think that the man who came up with the system changed the Sichuan area for ever. They used to have constant devestating flooding and the canal and dam that they built changed all of that so that the fertile soil was safe to build on and farm permanantly.