Fiction: Group 2
The Real Origin of the Pearl River Delta
Creative Primary School, De Eb, Thierry Georges - 12, Fiction: Group 2
t the moment, the Pearl River Delta is a low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary where
the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea in Guangdong province, People’s Republic of
China is one of the most densely urbanized regions in the world and the main hub of China’s
economic growth. However, this was not always the case.
Long long ago, when China was still ruled by dynasties and long distances could only be travelled by sea,
there was a barren patch of desert on the outskirts of China, a place that only two groups of nomads
travelled. And even they did not venture deep into the land, of fear that they might wake the sleeping god
of storms. The two nomad tribes that still travelled were called the Hong tribe and the Acau tribe. Both
tribes were quite good at mechanics, technology, economics and finance. But Hong tribe was fond of horse
racing while the Acau tribe liked gambling.
These tribes spoke both Cantonese and Mandarin. One day, while searching the land the tribes finally
realized that there was no more food or water where they were, so both tribes sent out people to look for
resources. While searching, two boys, one called Kong and the other Mavis from opposite tribes had come
across each other while looking down onto deep crevasses. When they saw each other, they were shocked
since each tribe knew about each other, but not what went on with each other. After talking for a few
minutes about the best possible course of action, they finally came to the same conclusion. “We have to lure
our tribes into the big cave and seal them in the wake the storm god”, said Kong. “Of course”, said Mavis.
So that night they lured their tribes into the big cave, ignoring screams of terror, sealed them in.
They hurried along the land to the storm god’s lair where they found him lying on his bed enjoying his
endless slumber. They then went up to his ear and shouted at the top of their lungs. The god instantly woke
up and unleashed a fury of rain and thunder.
When everything cleared up and the tribes came out. Everything was wet and soggy but the crevasses were
filled with water and marine life, and on the floor the bodies of Kong and Mavis. They instantly knew what
had happened and stood still for a minute to remember the heroes. After that, the two tribes went opposite
ways following the river till they found good land. The river provided water and the fish in the river
provided food.
For the cold weather, they killed the animals that had come to drink from the new river and
use their hide. For timber, they cut down the trees that were slowly starting to grow. With all these
resources the tribes started to expand. After a while, they started to trade with the mainland and later the
world. They mainly traded their fish, in fact, their fish was so good that every year they held a fish fair that
people all around the world attended. One day in spring, it had started raining. The tribes thought this was
perfectly normal and were grateful for the fresh water. But the next day it was still raining and it continued
raining and raining and raining till the river eventually flooded. It was quite lucky that the tribes were on
high ground. It continued to rain all spring long till the first day of summer, then it finally stopped.
The water level had risen dramatically. Both the camps were surrounded by water. The two camps were the
only pieces of land visible, even after the water went down a bit in the next few days, there was still very
little land and the tribe’s camps were now islands. The tribe Hong decided to call their island Hong Kong to
remember Kong and the tribe Acau decided to call their island Macau to remember Mavis...
This is the real origin of Hong Kong, Macau and the Pearl River Delta as passed down from generation to
generation by the ancient families of the Hong and Acau tribes.
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