A closer view of the spectacular Qiantang River bore near Hangzhou, China.

© 1997 Eric Jones, Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory; reproduced by permission

The Qiantang river bore features in the Chinese novel Outlaws of the Marsh, which was written in the 16th century and describes historical events from the period 1100 - 1130. Because it kept time better than the clocks available 900 years ago, the bore was then known as "The Old Faithful". The novel reports that two military officers from northern China were staying in a monastery in the vicinity of Hangzhou. In the middle of the night they were woken up by what they thought where battle drums. It turned out that the sound that startled them was the roaring sound of The Old Faithful. Here is what the Chinese monks knew about the tides in 1130:

The tide comes in once during the day and once at night, always on time. Today is the fifteenth of the eight month, and it arrives at the third watch. We call it Old Faithful because it's never late.

Outlaws of the Marsh, by Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong. Foreign Languages Press, Beijing 1980. Translated by Sidney Shapiro. (chapter 99)
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