Kaifeng

Former Northern Song capital (960–1127), 70 km east of Zhengzhou. Reconstructed Song-dynasty themed old town, the Iron Pagoda, and the night market — one of the country's oldest.

Kaifeng was the capital of the Northern Song dynasty from 960 to 1127, during which period it was likely the largest city in the world, with a population estimated at over one million. The city's commercial and cultural life in that era is documented in Along the River During the Qingming Festival (Qingming Shanghe Tu), a 5.25-metre handscroll painted around 1085–1145 CE by Zhang Zeduan, depicting street life along the Bian River during the Qingming festival — shops, boats, acrobats, teahouses, bridges, and thousands of individual figures. It is one of the most-studied paintings in Chinese art history.

The Jurchen Jin dynasty captured Kaifeng in 1127, ending the Northern Song, and the court fled south to Lin'an (modern Hangzhou). What followed for Kaifeng was a series of historical catastrophes: repeated Yellow River flooding, deliberate flooding by the Ming general defending against Li Zicheng's rebels in 1642 (which drowned perhaps 300,000 people and buried much of the city under metres of silt), and later floods. The result is that each flooding event buried the previous city layer under alluvial deposits; Kaifeng sits on top of six previous cities.

The Millennium City Park (Qingming Shanghe Yuan) is a large reconstructed Song-era theme park built around the imagery of Zhang Zeduan's painting. It is theatrical rather than historical — costumed performers, scripted demonstrations, and recreated Song buildings — but it draws large crowds of Chinese visitors who engage enthusiastically with the performative history. The park is more interesting as a window into how the Song is remembered and performed in contemporary China than as a historical document.

The Iron Pagoda (Tieye Ta) is the unreconstructed landmark: a 56-metre Northern Song pagoda built in 1049 CE, covered in glazed brown tiles that give it the colour of iron. It survived the city's various disasters largely intact and remains one of the best-preserved Song-era structures in Henan.

Kaifeng also has a historically significant Jewish community — one of the oldest Jewish settlements in China, present since at least the Song dynasty. The community largely assimilated over subsequent centuries; the original synagogue was destroyed in a Yellow River flood. A Kaifeng Jewish heritage site and small museum document this unusual history.

The Drum Tower night market, occupying streets around the central drum tower, has been a food market for centuries and continues as an active street-food scene.