Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan Province, a sprawling transport hub and industrial city that most travellers pass through on the way to somewhere else. The city itself is not beautiful, but it sits at a crossroads of Chinese history — Shang Dynasty ruins lie beneath the modern streets, and some of China's most important ancient sites are within day-trip distance.
The big draw is Mount Songshan, about 90 minutes southwest, the central and most revered of China's five sacred mountains. At its foot sits the Shaolin Monastery, founded in 495 AD, birthplace of Chan (Zen) Buddhism and the legendary Shaolin martial arts. The monastery's Thousand Buddha Hall contains Tang Dynasty murals, and the Pagoda Forest nearby — over 220 memorial pagodas spanning a thousand years — is an extraordinary sight.
In the city, the Henan Provincial Museum houses one of China's finest collections of ancient bronzes, jades, and ceramics, with artefacts spanning from the Neolithic to the Qing Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty city wall — 3,500 years old, unearthed in 1955 — is still partially visible in several places around the modern city. The Yellow River Scenic Area, 30 kilometres north, is where the mother river of Chinese civilisation emerges from the loess hills and spreads across the North China Plain.
Zhengzhou is a major rail junction — the crossroads of the Beijing-Guangzhou and Lianyungang-Lanzhou lines — making it easy to reach from almost anywhere in China. High-speed rail connects it to Beijing in about 2.5 hours and Xi'an in under 2 hours.