Rivers that made cities great.

Why does every great city have a river traversing its main part? I think that’s because people must live on water, drinking, irrigating, and transporting, so in ancient time they inhabit as near as possible to rivers as to make the water they need easily accessible. Thus along the banks of rivers people gather, and gradually transform their settlements into hamlets, towns and cities. Some big cities are otherwise formed without having a river, like L.A. Hong Kong,Singapore etc, but they seem somewhat devoid of kind of humanism and spiritual vastness like those cities with a great river, e.g. Paris and London.

River Seine flows across the municipal Paris, nearly halves the city in the middle; so does River Thames to London. Almost all of the attractions are located along either side of the rivers, or nearby. As long as you have a concise city map in hand and a pair of strong legs, you can visit all the meccas on foot, with a little help of subway when necessary. The Seine is prettier and cleaner than the Thames, for the architecture of Paris is traditional, serving as a foil to the serenity of the river; whereas the architecture along the Thames is a mixture of tradition and modernity, probably giving me a sense of stress. Besides, the water of the Thames is murkier, not as green as that of Seine, and the trees are fewer too.

How about other great cities? You know, New York City has Hudson River and East River; Shanghai has Huang-Pu River and Suzhou River; and Rome has Tiber(I’ve never been there.). Even Beijing has a long, inner river Shih sha hai with beautiful weeping willows along the banks. Keelung River to Taipei City? Pitifully, it has levees on both side of the River to prevent the city from flooding; but at least we can plant more, much more, trees to make either bank of the River a place of recreation for citizens.