Anyang: The Saga Continues

Wo gen Fu Li Na, hen hao war!

If you are wondering if that is a human skull in there...yes, yes it is.

Yum.

Drummers at a Toaist temple we visited.

Sorry. Busy week, I will probably not be posting too much more this next week because I am off on a tour of Shanghai and Qingdao. Hooray, a break from the chilly spring winds! On another side note, Easter here in Beijing was wonderful and definitely the nicest weather we have seen yet. The Southern Cathedral was packed with Chinese and Westerners alike. But back to Anyang...

Lots of people complained about the food in the countryside (chicken soup anyone?). But I must say that I thought it was very delicious, this may have been because I had just climbed up a mountain on an empty stomach. But Anyang has this sweet rice that is like heaven, I would liken it to eating fruit rolled in brown sugar.

Second day was more relaxed than the first. No mountain climbing or frighteningly unsafe suspension bridges. But Anyang is the cradle of Chinese writing so we did visit a museum that featured some of the very first known evidence of Chinese character writing. It was interesting but I am sure there is only so much I can appreciate about it as someone who's can't even read enough characters to understand a standard newspaper article.

We also visited some Shang dynasty tombs. I thought it was pretty fun, but others were definitely creeped out by the garish skeletons proudly displayed throughout the museum. Regardless, we wrapped up Sunday on a good note. We packed into the bus around 4pm and began our trip back to Beijing.

I have never really thought I was going to die, but I thought we were certainly done for a few times on the trip home. For about an entire hour we were tail-gating a propane tanker with a giant flammable sign on the back. And when I say tailgate, I do mean that we were literally about five feet from the other vehicle. I could see all of us just burning to crisps. Also got to see a few Chinese truck stops, and you thought the bathrooms at American truck stops were questionable...

All in all it was quite an eye opening trip.