Dr. Vern Bissell (PhD, Civil Engineering - Water Resources) was employed by the U.S. National Weather Service as a hydrology researcher for five years, followed by twenty-two years in operational river forecasting in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Vern's interest in China's rivers began with research and conference visits to Nanjing and Huangshan in 1989 and 1992. The ""aha moment"" relating China's rivers to the Great Flood of the Bible came in 2005 on a hiking trail at Qingcheng Shan, the purported birthplace of Taoism. It was then and there that Vern suddenly realized they were climbing a mountain many hundreds of meters high, composed of rounded boulders and cobbles (flood rocks!) - all the way to the top - at the eastern terminus of the Tibetan Plateau. That was the first ""aha moment,"" the first ""seed"" for this book, with many others to follow. 作者简介 弗农-比塞尔博士(Vern Bissell,工学博士,土木工程--水资源专业)曾在美国国家气象局担任水文研究员五年,随后在美国西北太平洋地区从事二十二年的河流预报业务。比塞尔博士对中国河流的兴趣始于1989年和1992年分别前往南京与黄山进行研究与参加学术会议。2005年,在青城山(被誉为道教发源地)的一条登山小径上,他迎来了与《圣经》大洪水相关的""顿悟时刻""。当时,他突然意识到,他们脚下所攀登的这座高达数百米的山体,竟完全由圆滑的巨砾岩和粗砾岩构成--这些都是洪水留下的痕迹!这一发现位于青藏高原东缘,成为了本书的第一颗""种子"",也是一系列""灵感时刻""的开端。