We are still surveying the low-lying areas south of Rizhao and near the large site of Yao Wang Cheng, although we now are a bit farther from the sea coast than we were several days ago. As a consequence, we are crossing fewer shrimp ponds and water hazards, but just as many wet wheat and rice fields and more fruit tree orchards (mainly fuji apple and peach). The orchards also present challenges to surveyors, as many of them are surrounded by formidable fences of one kind or another. Although barbed wire is becoming more common, as compared to when we began the survey nine years ago, I find the most difficult orchard fence to penetrate to be one made of a thick green bristly plant with inch-long thorns. Of course, once inside an orchard, one has to deal with the tangle of low branches that the surveyor has to push through gently to pass.

Although there is always the temptation to walk around the perimeter of orchards, this would be a mistake as many of the best sites that we have found over the years have been situated in groves of fruit trees. Today, farmers often place orchards on sandy soils and slightly sloped terrain that may not make the best farmland. Such topographic characteristics providing drainage and elevation above periodically flooded alluvial ground may be just what made these areas attractive for the placement of settlements in the past. Mulberry fields, which also generally can be found on sandy soils, are another common place where we often find sites.

Wherever we are in the countryside, there are always people working in the fields, spreading night soil, carrying produce, tending animals, and tilling the earth. We also see many children, and they tend to be the most curious about what we are doing, sometimes following us from field to field and across water-laden channels of brackish water.

Knowing that we were to be crossing muddy wheat and rice fields all day, we did not really expect to find any significant sites today, but we were pleased that we did. On a very low rise on the floodplain, close to the north-south coastal highway, we found a significant Zhou-period (1100 to 200 BC) site of about 10 hectares that also had some earlier Longshan and later Han period occupations. We collected sherds from a fenced-in tree farm, wheat fields, fallow ground, and even the grove of trees that bordered the highway. A farmer digging a hole in his field as we passed by pulled up more than a half of an Eastern Zhou high-handled plate, perhaps almost 2500 years old. The cultural deposits in the hole (from which the vessel apparently came) were almost a meter down, and yet we had no difficulties finding ceramic remnants of this ancient occupation littering the ground surface. Another farmer said that one year ago he found one example of knife-shaped metal coinage that Dr. Fang believes (based on form) is from the Zhou period in this same field. Yet we know that we are not always so fortunate to find so much on the surface. We made 13 different collection areas of surface artifacts at this site and once we analyze the potsherds in these collections we will have a better estimate regarding the relative size of this settlement during the different eras of its occupation.

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of the field survey for another year - just a few days left. We have been very fortunate with the weather so far as it has been very warm. We did lose one day and a few afternoon hours to a few episodes of rain, but we washed the pottery from our collections during the rainouts, saving us time when we are done in the field. Once we have completed the surveying, we will turn our attention to the analysis and dating of the hundreds of artifact collections that we have made and washed.

The word today is "xu ri," which also is the name of our hotel. "Xu' means 'rising,' while 'ri' refers to the 'sun.' Being on the east coast of China, the sun, since it rises in the east, is considered very important in Rizhao, which itself means 'early sun."