I left off with my last post before my trip to Anyang last weekend. We arrived at the train station with just enough time to quickly buy snacks and run to our train car. IES was nice enough to schedule our long-weekend trip on Qing Ming Jie (Grave Sweeping Day), a Chinese holiday when many people return home to pay respect to their deceased relatives. So, the train was mobbed. We set out at 6:45 in a cramped and stuffy train car. I spent the long train ride opposite a man who worked as an engineer for Siemens in Beijing. Fortunately, (though I wouldn’t have expected otherwise) we had seats. Chinese trains often sell standing-room only tickets, and the aisles were full with people who stood for several hours until they reached their destinations. We got into the Anyang train station at around 11:20, and walked outside to the usual banter of taxi drivers crying “Hello! Welcome!” (in English). Our hotel, in what can best be described as downtown Anyang, was reasonably nice with complimentary Internet, a waterfall shower, and clean sheets. The next morning, our tour-guide, Asher, gave us an introduction to the city. “Anyang,” he said, “is a small city of only 6 million people.” By contrast, Philadelphia has less than 1.5 million people. He was right, of course. Even though Anyang has almost 6 million (registered) residents, in addition to who-knows-how-many migrant workers, it was a small city—not at all metropolitan, no nightlife, not too many sites, and a fairly walkable central city area. He next told us that we were lucky, that since Anyang was currently in a competition to win the title of the Cleanest City in Henan Province, the city was cleaner than usual. That wasn’t saying much.
Our first day, we set out to an archaeological site to listen to a short lecture about archaeology in the area, to visit a museum, and later to dig. Anyang had been the seat of power of the Chinese empire throughout the Shang Dynasty and sub-Shang Yin Dynasty, up until the Zhou Dynasty. It was also the birthplace of a famous general during the Song Dynasty, and had been constructed as a city during the Ming Dynasty in 1386 CE. As a result, Anyang is a treat for archaeology and history enthusiasts alike. Anyang is also considered to be the birthplace of Chinese writing, and the museum had many examples of how characters have developed from pictographic representations to their current forms. After lunch, we returned to the Yin Dynasty archaeological site and started our dig. While it was an interesting experience, I was slightly disappointed with the archaeological dig. I’ve always loved archaeology, but this dig wasn’t real. While last semester they had sent the group to a real site in the field, and they had found an actual child’s sarcophagus from the Shang Dynasty, this semester they put us in an area under a temporary overhang that had been examined for quite some time. They obviously didn’t expect us to find anything of value, but just to make sure, they told us that whatever we found we could keep, so long as it wasn’t jade or bronze. I found several pieces of pottery, and one of my classmates found 3 large pieces of a pot. At one point, a local television station came through and interviewed one of my friends and myself (I was there more for moral support). I also found a piece of petrified wood, an animal bone, and possibly a piece of human bone. When we were getting ready to leave, however, the leader of the site came through and said to leave now and not take anything with us. I looked at my tour guide, who whispered, “Clean them out.” So, I grabbed all of the items I’d found, and pocketed them. We then saw them kicking the rest of our artifacts back into their holes, and re-covering them with dirt. It turns out that later that day they were having an important visit from a Taiwanese group, and they wanted it to be easy and look good. So, in the end, I was the only one who made it away with my artifacts, and then, after a little more exploring the grounds, we headed back to our hotel for free time.
On Saturday, we got on the bus and set out on the 2-hour ride to Linzhou City, in the mountains. There, we explored an area called the Red Flag Canal and the Youth Tunnel. Again, since it was Qing Ming Jie, the place was mobbed, and what we had hoped would be a nice hike, turned out to be slow crawl up the stairs of the mountain. (Chinese hikes always involve stairs.) The Youth Tunnel was extremely narrow, and difficult to pass through with my bag, but overall not too bad. When we reached the top of the “mountain,” we encountered a lot of local school groups. All the children starting screaming “Laowai” (foreigner) and “Waiguoren” (also means foreigner), so we took some pictures with them, and me being the smart-ass that I am would say “Nali you? Laowai zai nar?!?” (Where are there foreigners?!?). Crossing a long cable bridge between two peaks with a sign that read “Maximum 50 people”, and which clearly had many more people on it, we arrived at the start of what claimed to be the “longest one-way (?) slide in China.” (I have no doubts). They gave us an extra piece of cloth to put on our pants to avoid rips, and a pair of gloves to slow ourselves down if we thought we were going too fast, and we set out. It was definitely the longest and best sliding experience I’ve ever had (J).
Next we drove to Taihang Canyon, and hiked through the very nice scenery for an hour or so, after which time we drove to a small lake and paid to go play on the water in giant inflatable balls. They told us that if we were able to use the balls to walk on the water 20 meters, they would give us 50 kuai, 20 meters and back, 100 kuai, or if we fell less than 2 times during our 10 minutes, they’d give us another ten minutes free. What looked like an easy task proved to be extremely difficult. As soon as we hit the water, we fell. Also, standing up was quite difficult, and you quickly became tired. Still, it was definitely a fun experience. That night we headed back to Anyang, and after dinner, played cards and drank a bit in my hotel room.
The next morning we found out that our 1:30 train had been rescheduled for 7:30, and so they’d planned a few extra activities and some free time for us. We first visited a historic site that had been built as a prison for one man during the Shang dynasty, but which was more of a temple than anything else. Besides Chinese fortune-tellers, because of the sites relation to the ancient Chinese book, I Ching, the highlight of this stop (for me at least) was a giant labyrinth. Upon entering the maze, they told us that if you were able to complete it in less than 15 minutes you are very smart. (I finished first in just under 14. J) It was quite fun, though most people gave up and waited at the end, escaping through small exit holes in the walls. Next, we went to the Anyang cultural center, where we learned to do Chinese paper-cutting and got to play with clay. I made an elephant, which a small girl destroyed after I walked away. Later, during our free time, we walked to a huge pagoda in downtown Anyang. Many large pagodas, but the one in Anyang is one of the only ones that you’re permitted to ascend. So, we went to the top, and took some pictures. Then, got some food and headed to the train station to return to Beijing. The train back to Beijing was especially nice, since it was new. Therefore, there were no people in the aisles, the seats head plenty of leg room, and the bathrooms were nice. So, I pulled out my computer and played games for a while before intending to study for my dictation quiz the next morning. While I was playing Mario on an NES (Nintendo) emulator, I noticed that I had a new friend (a 10-year old boy) standing over my shoulder watching. So, I played for twenty minutes or so, talking with him at the same time. He was from Beijing, and had been traveling for the holiday with his parents. Once my battery ran out, however, I told him I was going to study, and then he went back to his seat. A half an hour later, however, he came back and I talked to him for about an hour and a half in Chinese (figuring that real conversation was more important than my dictation quiz anyway).
No comments:
Post a Comment