For most of the eleventh century, Kaifeng was the largest city on earth. As the capital of the Northern Song dynasty it was a place of extraordinary cosmopolitan energy — the great painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" captures a single day in the life of this city, packed with merchants, entertainers, boats, and festivals. Marco Polo passed through in 1260, long after the Song had moved south, and was still impressed. That world is gone, buried under centuries of flooding and silt — the city has been rebuilt on top of itself so many times that the Tang-dynasty streets lie twelve metres below the current surface — but enough survives to make Kaifeng one of Henan's most rewarding stops.
The Iron Pagoda, built in 1049, is the city's most immediately striking monument. The name is misleading: it's made of glazed brick tiles in a deep brown that looks metallic from a distance, especially in afternoon light. Thirteen stories, octagonal, and decorated with thousands of relief figures of Buddhas, apsaras, and mythical animals — it's one of the finest examples of Song-dynasty ceramic architecture. Daxiangguo Temple, founded in 555 CE and rebuilt repeatedly since, impresses most with its bronze Thousand-Armed Guanyin and the surviving Song-era layout. Dragon Pavilion, though largely a Qing-dynasty rebuild, occupies the site of the original Song imperial palace and sits between two scenic lakes that give the complex unexpected grandeur.
The city's most distinctive modern attraction is Millennium City Park, a large-scale recreation of the world depicted in the Qingming painting — full of actors in Song costume, markets, boat rides, and theatrical performances. It sounds kitsch and sometimes is, but the sheer ambition of the recreation is impressive, and the evening light shows on the water are genuinely beautiful. Kaifeng also has one of China's oldest Jewish communities, dating to merchants who settled here during the Song; a small museum and synagogue replica mark a history that has otherwise largely dissolved into the local population over centuries.
Kaifeng is an easy day trip from Zhengzhou — thirty minutes by high-speed train — but it deserves more time. Stay overnight and walk the old streets in the evening, when the food stalls around the night market fill with people eating the city's famous steamed meat buns and sweet osmanthus glutinous rice cakes. Come in October if you can: the Chrysanthemum Cultural Festival has been held here for over a thousand years.