It's such fun to be on the road again1 there are things you see only when driving, and places you only think of going to because they're on your way. Highlights of our second day on the road, Handan to Kaifeng. 
These residential towers under construction could have been on the outskirts of any city we passed. A complex like this, with a dozen or more towers, would have neighboring complexes, and rise over what was once farmland, or a low-slung development centuries or perhaps only decades old, parts of whose may remain in various states of demolition... Who will live there, one wonders, and how will they live? One is struck again, too, by just how many people there are in China, going through disruption after disruption with no end in sight.
More or less on the way to Kaifeng is Anyang, a proud ancient city of five million, and home to the longest lasting of the Shang dynasty capitals, 14th-11th century BCe. (They were destroyed by the folks who set up shop in Handan.) Anyang is famous now because it is in its outskirts that were found not only more bronzes than anywhere else in China, but thousands of oracle bones - inscribed with the oldest surviving examples of what was clearly already a well established written language. I've only ever seen pictures of these bones, and was thrilled here not only to see some but to make out the writing on them.
Of course most of what survives is from tombs, so we had our share also of skeletons - horses and charioteers, young men sacrificed in groups, etc. Back on the road in 21st century Anyang we marveled at the unceasing chaos of its traffic, much of it on spindly motorbikes whose intrepid drivers headed diagonally across traffic in all directions at once. Some motorbike engines are attached to little wagons and carry spectacular loads, like this hotel's worth of sheets (or a restaurant's supply of table cloths?). Arrived finally in Kaifeng, Dianping found us a great little local restaurant just beyond the tourist zone for dinner. Kaifeng's bao (soup dumplings) give Shanghai's a run for their money.
These residential towers under construction could have been on the outskirts of any city we passed. A complex like this, with a dozen or more towers, would have neighboring complexes, and rise over what was once farmland, or a low-slung development centuries or perhaps only decades old, parts of whose may remain in various states of demolition... Who will live there, one wonders, and how will they live? One is struck again, too, by just how many people there are in China, going through disruption after disruption with no end in sight.
