The Forum resumed its regular Wednesday morning meetings on the 10th of January after the Christmas break with a talk by guest speaker Geoff Queen from Kettlewell.
Geoff titled his talk Dam Yangtze, a play on words to describe two visits he and his wife made to the Chinese Yangtze River at the time when a giant dam was being constructed which changed the geography of the area in many ways.
He started with a list of statistics about China including its population (1.25 billion) which is one fifth the population of the world. One city has a population of 30 million whilst a settlement of 4 million is regarded as a town.
The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world and the dam was built at a location called the Three Gorges, regarded as particularly beautiful, and involved the displacement of over a million people.
Geoff illustrated his talk with a slide show. Unfortunately the weather had not been kind to him although that and the polluted atmosphere highlighted the devastation caused by the dam to the existing towns and cities.
Geoff also visited the Great Wall, Beijing and the terra-cotta soldiers at Xian and at the end of his talk he invited those forum members who had visited China to share their impressions.
Mike Earle thanked Geoff Queen for his informative talk.
Geoff donates his speaker’s fees to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.