During this wide ranging spring trim to China I was aided by many friends.
Some of you looking at these posts may remember “Jim”, who I had met in Tunxi when I was visiting Anhui a few years ago. (If you watch my video on Pere-X.net about that Anhui trip you will see a photo of Jim.
Well, Jim was kind enough to take more than a week off work to spend about 9 days traveling along with me in China. He was a great pal to help me and he also enjoyed the travels. Together we visited:
Hangzhou, Tongling, Zhengzhou, Anyang, Kaifeng, Datong, and Taiyuan.
Jim also has channels on both WeChat and YouTube. He has posted some nice videos there showing some of the things we saw during our travels.
So, here are links to some of his videos that I hope you will enjoy!
(I apologize for inserting some of my own commentary. Feel free to ignore it and just enjoy Jim’s videos and let his narrative speak for itself!)
(I will mention that I always hate to see photos or videos of myself. But since Jim’s videos were not just telling about the places we went, but also talking about our journey… it is unavoidable!)
The Shang Dynasty? What you should know-
The Shang Dynasty is the oldest Chinese dynasty for which there is solid archaeological evidence.
Although human presence and the beginnings of Chinese civilization certainly predate the Shang… there just isn’t a lot of evidence.
The Shang dynasty was in power in what is now central China from about 1600 to 1000 BCE. Good lord! That was even longer ago then my high school days! (By the way: “BCE” is the same as BC for any “old school” folks reading this!)
Predating the Shang was the “Xia” dynasty. DON’T confuse that with the “Western Xia” which was much, much later! (And which is mentioned in my own videos when I talk about Ningxia.)
The Chinese have a long history of invention and should certainly be looked at as over-achievers! To help you get a handle on the Shang Dynasty, let’s talk about something you all have probably heard about:
The ”Oracle Bones”.
As a part of the Shang culture among the elite, soothsayers used a rather unique method to predict the future. They would inscribe questions on the bones of oxen or on the underside of a turtle shell, and then put these items into a fire.
Based on how the fire would crack the bone/shell, the soothsayer would interpret the answer to the inscribed question.
Well, guessing the future has a long long history… but what is really interesting about this is that they “inscribed questions”.
This is the evidence of the earliest form of written Chinese!
Yep, more than three thousand years ago they were writing with an early form of the written Chinese still used today!
Now that is sustainability!
In an early part of this video of our visit to the Iron Pagoda, Jim shows a crazy scene where numerous classes of young students pass by enthusiastically waving.
Chinese people, on the whole, are very friendly. And the kids seem really curious to see a tall westerner.
Although many westerners including western tourists, can be found in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi’an… there are many other areas where “Westerners” are a very rare site.
Early in this trip for example, when I was in Wuxi (between Nanjing and Shanghai) a few kids latched onto me, and one boy in particular wouldn’t leave. Finally he apologized and told me that it was just that he had never met a westerner before.
This video shows the “Hanging Temple” (悬空寺) in Shanxi Province (Note: Shanxi, NOT Shaanxi) near the city of Datong.
In the video Jim does an excellent job of explaining background details and cultural significance of this site.
I first saw a photo of the hanging temple many years ago in a magazine while riding a high-speed train in China.
At first glance the photo was nothing more than a photo-shopped adaptation of a picture of the cliff dwellings in “Mesa Verde” (located in southwestern Colorado), to convert the adobe/brick structures into Chinese type buildings.
But then I realized the amazing reality of Datong’s “Hanging Temple”, and swore that I had to go visit it one day! Well, the opportunity came this April! It is “way cool” to say the least!
This collection of Buddhist artwork within a series of “caves” is considered one of the three most important such sites in China.
(The other two are Longmen Grottoes, near Luoyang in Henan Province, which I visited with my colleagues Alexandria, Megan, and Kristen from the XJTU Summer English Program, and Magao Grottoes near Dunhuang in Gansu province which I visited with another colleague- my good friend Marlene)
Take a look at Jim’s video to get an idea of how impressive this artwork is!