Anyang, located in the north of Henan Province on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, is an ancient cultural city. The remains of some of the earliest human settlements have been unearthed here, including ruins of the Shang Dynasty (sixteenth-eleventh centuries B.C.)
Shang Dynasty Ruins (Yinxu)
These are also called Yin ruins as the Shang Dynasty is also referred to after the fourteenth century B.C. Lying about two kilometers northwest of Anyang, the ruins spread to both banks of the Henghe River with the present village of Xiaotun at their center. This was the site of the capital of the Shang (or Yin) Dynasty around the fourteenth century B.C..
Large-scale excavation has been going on at this site since 1899. Archaeologists have discovered ruins of the imperial palaces of the Shang Dynasty as well as large tombs of the royal families of that period. More than 100,000 pieces of bone and tortoise shell inscribed with the earliest form of Chinese script have been unearthed on the site, providing scholars with valuable historic and linguistic information. Large numbers of bronze ware, tools and articles for production and daily use have also been found here. A rectangular pot 1.33 meters high and weighing 875 kilometers, with beautiful stylized dragon and legendary animal patterns inscribed on its four sides, is a rare bronze object in the world.
In the last thirty years, systematic excavation has been going on at the site of the Shang (Yin) Dynasty ruins and more objects of the Shang Dynasty have been unearthed. At Xiaotun Village, an exhibition hall has been built to house the cultural relics that have been unearthed here.
Yue Fei Memorial Temple in the county town of Tangyin, not far from Anyang, stands the memorial temple of Yue Fei (1103-1142), a famous national hero of the Song Dynasty (960-1179). First built in the early Ming Dynasty and repaired many times since then, the temple now houses over a hundred pieces of stone carvings showing Yue Fei's writings in his own handwriting, records of repairs of the place and poems and inscriptions in his p prominent figures. The compact but magnificent building also contains a rich collection of colorful sculptures and is well worth a visit.
