 Luoyang , the region of his birthplace , was recovered by government forces in the winter of 762 , and in the spring of 765 Du Fu and his family sailed down the Yangtze , apparently with the intention of making their way there . They traveled slowly , held up by his ill @-@ health ( by this time he was suffering from poor eyesight , deafness and general old age in addition to his previous ailments ) . They stayed in <unk> ( in what is now <unk> , Chongqing ) at the entrance to the Three Gorges for almost two years from late spring 766 . This period was Du Fu 's last great poetic flowering , and here he wrote 400 poems in his dense , late style . In autumn 766 , Bo <unk> became governor of the region : he supported Du Fu financially and employed him as his unofficial secretary . 
