Anyang

Anyang, in northern Henan, is one of the Eight Great Ancient Capitals of China and the site of Yinxu, the last capital of the Shang dynasty over three thousand years ago. It was here that oracle-bone inscriptions, the earliest known form of Chinese writing, were unearthed, giving the city UNESCO World Heritage status. The National Museum of Chinese Writing traces the evolution of Chinese characters from those bones to today. In the mountainous Linzhou area, the Red Flag Canal, hand-carved into cliffs in the 1960s, is celebrated as a monument of collective labor. High-speed rail on the Beijing-Guangzhou line and a new airport serve the city. For an international student, Anyang is a doorway into the very origins of Chinese civilization.