Recently an old friend of my wife invited us to her home in Henan province. I came here on my first trip to China in 2007, visiting Shaolin Temple and the city of Luoyang to see the Longmen Buddhist Grottoes. I was particularly excited to be coming back here after almost 10 years, as now I have a much better understanding of Chinese culture and history, there would be a lot to learn from visiting. The plan was to base ourselves in the provincial capital of Zhengzhou, and either have our friend take us in her car, or take a short train ride to some surrounding sites of historical interest.

Zhengzhou: Capital of Henan Province

Zhengzhou was really an unattractive city in every sense of the word. The density of high rises, combined with the overcrowding of people and terrible traffic gave the entire city a claustrophobic feel, the dry and dusty air seemed to make the pollution feel all that much worse, to the point that by the end of the day my nose and throat were sore. Zhengzhou comes in at number 10 on the list of most polluted cities in China. Going back to our friends home, the traffic was absolutely gridlocked, scooters and motorbikes whizzed in all directions, and people just walked through the traffic freely. Dinner consisted of the local speciality of pulled noodles in soup, which would be basically all we could find to eat sans Mcdonald’s for the next few days. We turned in early, and got ready for our first trip which would start early in the morning, Kaifeng, a city which boasts a reptutation as capital of seven dynasties, and is supposedly very well preserved.

Kaifeng: Ancient Capital

After a lunch of, yes you guessed it, more noodles (this time with donkey meat), we went to the shrine of Lord Bao, a local governor of the Song Dynasty renowned for his sense of justice and the tough legal system he implemented. There were two huge stele in the courtyard, I’m not sure if they were very old or not, but they were totally covered in graffitti, to the point that the original writing was illegible. In the nearby Kaifeng Palace, a sort of mini-Forbidden City, there was a mock up prison where you could see explanations of some of the cruel punishments given out to criminals such as being boiled alive, pulled in half by horses or having ink poured into your nose until you drowned.

Sights all seen, what I really wanted to do was to explore the old streets, not the tourist traps. Although many of the main streets were jazzed up for tourists, the back alleys going off the sides were old, gritty and real. Tiny iron doors which had mostly rusted away had Chinese character couplets over the doors blessing the houses, and old people sat around chatting and playing Mahjong. Passing through a huge gate with Arabic writing on, we entered a large food square, apparently renowned in Henan, Kaifeng street food is a must eat. However it was so dirty, even by my standards, we requested to just go back to Zhengzhou and have a McDonald’s.

Kaifeng I feel on the whole was a bit of a disappointment. I know a lot of people who love the city, perhaps you need to spend much more time to scratch underneath the surface. All I saw was grime and dirt plus some modernly renovated tourist sites, apparently it is a real Mecca for old Chinese culture, but I guess you need contacts to take you to see the right people in the right places.

Yinxu: Birthplace of China

This was the big part of the trip for me. Having mentioned to my professor that I’m going to Henan, and will visit Yinxu, the Shang Dynasty tombs, he suggested for our Chinese characters class I take the opportunity to research Oracle Bone Script, the first ever Chinese characters, which were found inside these very tombs. I took his suggestion, and made this the focus of my trip to Henan.

Arriving in Anyang train station I was immediately taken by the clean, fresh air, especially after the hell-hole of Zhengzhou. The train station, as quite a few are in Henan, was a huge concrete building, menacingly designed to look like a Ding, a huge bronze urn used in temples for offerings, and the station name was written in Oracle Bone Script too. We took a taxi through town, which was suprisingly modern and clean. A typical newly built Chinese town, it had huge multi-laned roads set out in a perfect grid pattern, with high rises either side of the road, and imposing local government offices in neo-Soviet style. We then passed through an old town, of authentic, grubby looking traditional style houses around a small lake, and a couple of temples, before crossing a bridge with huge Shang Dynasty style towers either side.

The Shang Dynasty ruled the area around the Yellow River in modern Henan province from around 1600-1000BC, and is the first dynasty in China to actually have a recorded history, anything before is just myth. However, much of the history of the Shang is attributed to the Han Dynasty scholar Sima Qian, and is also full of mythology. What is certain is that they had their capital was named Yin, hence the name Yinxu (the ruin of Yin), and several tombs and ruins have remained. In modern Chinese, the word for business man is shang-ren, literally meaning “person of the Shang”, which has its origin from this time.

We decided to hire a tour guide to show us around the tombs, which was definitely worth it, although I wasn’t going to pay the extra 100 for an English language guide, as I have little faith in their language level! The guide first took us into the museum and began introducing various bronze ware and other treasures found inside the tombs. A point of interest was the elephant skeletons; supposedly 3000 years ago, central China had elephants, and a little known fact is that the Chinese abbreviation for Henan province, Yu 豫, actually represents a person 予 leading an elephant 象. There were many human remains too; it was common for the Shang kings to make human sacrifices as life held little value with ten slaves being worth only one horse.

Then came the Oracle Bones, my real purpose for visiting. So Oracle Bone Script is the oldest known Chinese writing, and it consists of heiroglyphs etched onto bones or turtle shells. The purpose of these was a form of divination, the bones or shells would then be heated over fire and the cracks which appeared would be interpreted as a sign from Heaven as to whether an activity was to be favourable or not. Much of the questions relate to asking for weather forecasts, or whether certain festivals and rituals should be held or not. There are 4000 Oracle Bone characters, of which scholars can read less than half. Some are obvious rudimentary versions of modern characters, whereas some are totally unrelated.

Luoyang: Another Ancient Capital

I came to Luoyang nine years ago, as part of a trip to Shaolin Temple, so I was keen to return and see the city again with more experienced eyes. Getting of the train on a dull, slightly rainy day, we took a taxi to the Longmen Grottoes, the largest collection of Buddhas carved into rock in the world. The Buddhas are carved into the cliff faces on both sides of the river, and there are literally thousands of them, dating from the Northern Wei, Sui, Tang and Song Dynastys.

Got off to a bad start, as at the ticket office they refused my student card for a discounted ticket, claiming “foreigners are not elligable for discounts”, which is bullshit, as I’ve never been refused before. Getting my full priced, and not cheap, ticket, we headed for the golf-carts which whizz you to the actual grotto several hundred metres away. In the queue was a rowdy tour group of men in their 30s, with their hair dyed in ridiculous colours like pink and green, and equally ridiculously coloured clothes, being led to chant some weird song by a tour guide waving a flag. It felt more like I was waiting for a football match than a holy Buddhist site.

Of course, this being China, there isn’t anything holy about the site any more, its mass tourism in and out. This doesn’t detract from the sheer amazingness of the site though, the largest Buddha having ears which are over a metre long. Unfortunately many of the small Buddhas have been defaced, missing heads and hands, partly due to war and politics, partly due to ending up in various museums or private collections. Luckily most of the Buddhas now are protected from graffitti, although you can see some where people have got past barriers.

On my first trip to Luoyang, I didn’t actually see the city at all, only the Grottoes, so this time we decided to head to the preserved old town, which was much less touristy than I expected. There was a huge reconstructed Sui Dynasty gate, which was really impressive, and inside hosted many shops and restaurants, and once you enter you come to the original old city centre. Some of the building have become tourist souvenir shops, but a lot of them are in fact still inhabited by locals and you can see many old people going about their daily life. Wondering down some small back alleys you feel like time has been forgotten here. This small area can give you a feeling what the city would have been like before all the high rises and concrete blocks took over. In my opinion I feel like Luoyang is a much nicer place than Kaifeng, and there is still so much more to see, and so is definitely deserving of a return visit.