Anyang

Wow havent blogged in a while.

But I don't feel like much has happened. I kinda fell into a schedule of school, gym and xiaochi. I guess the biggest thing we've done recently was a trip to Anyang.

Anyang is south of Beijing, about 5 hours by slow train. We had tickets for seats on the train, but the other 60% of the passengers had to stand up for the full 5 hours. One lady decided not to stand but to fall asleep under our chairs.

We passed the usual sprawl of Beijing, farms, factories, hotels, more farms, more factories and eventually got to Anyang. It was dark when we arrived but from the look of the city it felt like we hadn't left Beijing. Our hotel was literally right next to the train station. At first a blessing because of the short walk but then at night while sleeping we heard train horns all night long. I thought it was fortuitous that we were so close to the station but I soon found out Anyang was, geographically, a pretty small city. But it does have over a million people living there. After the sweaty uncomfortable and boring train ride we headed to KFC, our western refuge.

The next day we went to see some oracle bone museum. Anyang is famous because they found some turtle shells with really old Chinese characters. Anyang is said to be the cradle of Chinese writing. This museum was more like a historic park. It had tons of exhibits of stuff they dug up. Not exciting....but interesting. Later we got to "dig" at an "archeological site". It was more like we helped a few laborers dig some dirt at a site that might contain some historically important material but in a few months will be the underground parking lot of an apartment complex. That night, Nash discovered an arcade with that tiny basketball game. He spent a lot of money trying to break the (in my opinion) unbreakable record on the game. Anyangs taxi drivers, infact all type of drivers, honked at everything. I think their cars were powered by their honking. They would honk at you even if you were standing on the sidewalk. Driving in Anyang was unbelievable chaotic, and the honking didn't seem to help. As i was falling asleep I tried to count the time between honks. I never got past 4 seconds....

The next day we went out of town to a mountain or hill of some sort. I didn't really understand why this place was famous. It was just a large hill that people climbed up. The view wasn't spectacular, but the climb was fun. We had to squeeze through tiny gaps in the rock and cross this huuuuuge bridge. Halfway up we had a picnic with supplies we brought with us. I was puzzled because there were tons of people climbing up this mountain but no one passing us on the way down. Is there another way down this mountain? Yes, there was.  Slide. A huge slide. The most painful slide I've ever been down. We wore protective clothing that seemed to only protect your clothes, not your body. It was steep and the corners were sharp. My hips were destroyed...

That afternoon we ate duck. Oh man, did we eat duck. Nash, Bo and I took down two whole ducks. And I do mean whole. They deep fry the entire duck and chop it up and put it in a bag for you. I found the head, complete with beak. This fried duck was the best duck I've ever had. Disgustingly bad for you though.

They journey back to Beijing was much more pleasant. We took a high speed train home which reduced the trip to about 3 hours. This train was the nicest train I've ever been on. It felt like a plane without wings. But much, much more leg room. Something I forgot to mention. Anyang was disgusting. It was so polluted. I think it was surrounded by coal power plants. I thought Beijing was bad, but Anyang definitely raised the bar. Or lowered it....whatever.

Yes, Anyang was a pretty uncomfortable place. Returning to Beijing was lovely. I can't imagine how returning to the US will be.