Zhengzhou 郑州

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The cradle of Chan (Zen) Buddhism: the temple was founded in 495 in the Northern Wei dynasty, where Bodhidharma faced a wall in meditation for nine years and founded the Chan school; the saying "all kung fu under heaven comes from Shaolin" has made Shaolin kung fu a calling card of Chinese culture

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One of the four great academies of the Song dynasty; its forerunner was the Northern Wei Songyang Temple. Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi lectured here, and the famous tale of "standing in the snow at Cheng's gate" comes from disciples of the two Chengs, from where Neo-Confucianism spread far and wide

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The largest ancient building complex among the Five Sacred Mountains; its forerunner was the Qin-dynasty Taishi Shrine. The Daoist Zhongyue Temple stretches in depth along a central axis of eleven successive courtyards, earning the nickname "Little Forbidden City"

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The finest section of Mount Song's quartzite landscape: the cliff-hugging "Sanhuang plank walkway" is set into sheer precipices, and walking it offers a close view of the "five generations under one roof" strata profile recording Mount Song's 3.5 billion years of geological change—the core of the Mount Song Global Geopark

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Built by Guo Shoujing in 1276 in the Yuan dynasty, it is the oldest observatory surviving in China; the observational data for the Shoushi Calendar were measured here, matching the accuracy of the current Gregorian calendar three hundred years earlier

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The grand showcase of Central Plains civilization; its nine signature treasures span eight thousand years: the Jiahu bone flute (8,000 years old, with a seven-note scale) rewrote world music history, the Fu Hao owl zun (Shang) and the Duling square ding (unearthed in Zhengzhou) represent the pinnacle of bronze art, the Lotus and Crane square hu (Spring and Autumn) and the cloud-pattern bronze jin (Chu) show matchless craftsmanship…

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The ruins of the 3,600-year-old city walls of Bo, the Shang dynasty capital, lie right around the museum; the rammed-earth ramparts still rise above ground after three thousand years—the physical basis of Zhengzhou's name as the "Shang Capital"

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The new branch housing Zhengzhou's general-history exhibition, with a notable collection of Central Plains bronzes and Buddhist statuary and exhibition space among the largest in central China

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Built in 1955 as a "living textbook of Yellow River management", it displays Yellow River hydrological records, river-control works through the dynasties and the people's achievements in taming the river; a special exhibit on the Huayuankou Incident reconstructs the historical tragedy of the 1938 man-made dike breach

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Landmark at the divide between the Yellow River's middle and lower reaches; below the head of Mangshan the river leaves the mountains for the plains—the "suspended river" landscape is most striking here

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Site of the 1938 Yellow River breach: during the War of Resistance the great dike was opened to block the Japanese westward advance, and the floodwaters spilled south causing a colossal catastrophe—known in history as the "Huayuankou Incident"

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A wetland and floodplain leisure belt on the south bank of the Yellow River; the floodplain park's greenways are perfect for cycling and birdwatching, with seasonal stopovers by migratory birds such as great bustards and egrets

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A memorial to the 1923 Beijing-Hankou Railway workers' strike (the "Erqi Tragedy"); in 1971 a unique 63m twin-tower structure was built on the original site, a tower design found nowhere else in China, and Zhengzhou named the heart of the city after "Erqi"

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Zhengzhou's century-old commercial street, which grew into a street with the railway in 1904, now forms the Central Plains' number one shopping district together with Dennis David Plaza

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The "Big Corn" Qianxi Plaza stands 280m tall as the tallest building in the Central Plains; its corn shape is a design reinterpretation of Songyue Temple Pagoda, and its color-changing night lights have become Zhengzhou's new calling card

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An immersive theater fantasy city directed by Wang Chaoge, opened in 2021; 328m of rammed-earth walls enclose a maze-like cluster of theaters, where 21 theaters stage stories of land, grain and heritage in rotation — main shows such as "Lijia Village" and "The Railway Station" are packed with tear-jerking moments

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A theme park home to 15,000 animals; its drive-through safari zone combines close-up animal viewing with amusement rides, making it the flagship family attraction

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A live-set movie town created in cooperation with Huayi Brothers, with vividly recreated Republican-era Zhengzhou streetscapes; the immersive show "Crossing Dehua Street" brings the plot out into the streets

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Fantawild's flagship park; classic attractions like Song of Flight and Dinosaur Crisis blend rides with themed theaters, while the adjacent Fantawild Dreamland skews toward younger kids

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Northern Wei imperial grottoes; the Emperor and Empress Worshiping Buddha reliefs are the finest and only such processional carvings surviving in China, their robed figures strikingly lifelike—a key sample of the transition from the Yungang-Longmen sculptural style toward sinicization, historically hailed as 'the foremost carvings under heaven'

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The 'foremost official residence of the Central Plains'; the Kang family ran river-transport trade for four hundred years from the Ming to the Qing, famed as 'living gods of wealth'. Built against loess cliffs with cave dwellings and fortress-style complexes, its warehouse, residential and ancestral-hall quarters stack up like a small town

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Birthplace of Du Fu, the 'poet-sage'; the cave dwelling beneath Bijia Mountain is said to be where he was born, and the memorial hall follows his life and poetic achievements—the 'poetry-as-history' life of the great poet began in Gongyi

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Birthplace of Xuanyuan, the Yellow Emperor; the annual Grand Ceremony of Ancestor Worship held here on the third day of the third lunar month is a national-level ritual, drawing Chinese from home and abroad seeking their roots

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The Peiligang Site gave its name to an 8,000-year-old Neolithic culture; its unearthed stone grinding slabs and bone flutes bear witness to the dawn of agriculture in the Central Plains

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A cluster of lakes in the Yellow River wetlands, with vast waters and stretches of reeds; the hairy crab season from September to November is the liveliest time, and the crab banquets and lake delicacies of Yanming Crab Island draw diners from the city on special trips