Day 8

We started the day with a visit to the Henan Museum. So far, this has been our first museum stop (we have yet to duplicate any activity on this trip). This museum had the most impressive displays of artifacts from the Ming Dynasty. I’ve always heard of Ming vases, but I couldn’t believe how many were discovered intact. Lots of ancient pottery tends to be very simple in design, but Ming pottery is extremely detailed. Next we stopped at a date factory. I bought some of the cookies they served at breakfast – delicious, though nothing in China is nearly as sweet as it is in the U.S.


After lunch we went to the Dragon Pavilion Park, which housed two main monuments: the Iron Pagoda and the Memorial Temple to Lord Bao. The Iron Pagoda has 13 tiers. This pagoda is actually made of brick, but its coloring makes it appear to be made of iron. Some of the students climbed up a little ways inside. I peaked in, but didn’t go up, because the staircase was extremely steep, narrow, twisting, and very dark (there were no windows). Bruce and I walked across the lake to a little gazebo instead.


We rode in a motorized tricycle between the Iron Pagoda and the Memorial Temple. Talk about a hair-raising ride! The tricycles can’t go very fast (I think they were built the same year as these temples), but we were right out in the crazy traffic with the other cars, buses, taxis, and hundreds of scooters.


Dr Tai decided to have her fortune told at the Memorial Temple. She had to shake a stick out of a large container and then the monks gave her a card with the words on the stick. It gave her a lot of generic predictions, but mostly it told her to have patience (good thing that wasn’t my fortune). After dinner, some of the adults went out for another foot massage, while the students went looking for a McDonalds. I opted for a shower and bed; these have been long days.