Kaifeng Travel Guide

Kaifeng is one of China's seven great ancient capitals, located on the south bank of the Yellow River in eastern Henan, and it flourished greatly as the capital of the Northern Song. It is known for the painted scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival, which depicts the bustle of the capital, and the Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden, which recreates that world, is the center of sightseeing.Inside the park, people dressed in Song-era clothing reenact the streets and trade of the day, letting visitors feel as if they have wandered into the capital of old. In the city, places that bring history to life follow one after another: the Kaifeng Prefecture, dedicated to Bao Zheng, the famed incorruptible official, and the Daxiangguo Temple, founded in the Tang dynasty and at its height in the Northern Song.The Iron Pagoda of Kaibao Temple, built in the Northern Song period, still looks down over the city after nearly a thousand years. The history of cities stacked upon cities, layer upon layer buried underground by floods of the Yellow River, is also unique to this land. The layers sleeping below tell the story of Kaifeng's history walked alongside the Yellow River.At night the Drum Tower Night Market opens, with stalls of soup dumplings, fried bean jelly, and other snacks. The night market tradition, said to continue from the Northern Song, still lives in daily life. Rail connections from Zhengzhou and Luoyang are good, making the city a base for traveling through Henan.