Kaifeng Attractions

Archers' towers and watch stations have long vanished from the city fortifications but the city walls remain. They run for 14.4km and are 7m thick at the base tapering to 5m at the top and rise an impressive 8m high. Forget high-rise buildings, fancy hotels and shopping malls, the tallest structure at 55m is the Iron Pagoda located northeast of the city at Beimen Da Jie – a slender 13-storey octagonal temple with its current incarnation built in 1049.

Constructed in brick, the pagoda is wrapped in glazed tiles that give off a metallic gleam. Observe the tiles closely and you might catch a glimpse of celestial beings, dragons, Chinese unicorns, lions and lotuses. RMB 20 entrance fee aside, you'll have to cough up another few to get a bird's-eye view of the city from the top of the pagoda. If you look to the west, there's a tiny pavilion housing a 5.14mtall bronze Buddha from the Song dynasty.

In the city center is the Xiangguo Temple. Built in AD 555, it was the foremost Buddhist center and commercial hub of the city during the Song dynasty. Underlining Kaifeng's vulnerability to floods, it was destroyed several times and last restored in 1766. The temple was given its name in AD 712 by the Tang emperor to commemorate his ascension to the Dragon's Throne. Head for the Octagonal Ceramic Palace, which houses a statue of the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. The 6m tall idol, with four faces and 1,000 arms and eyes, was carved from a single gingko tree.

About 1.5kmnorth of the Xiangguo Temple stands the Dragon Pavilion in Dragon Pavilion Park. At this site once stood the ruins of Song, Jin and Ming buildings. In 1642 a catastrophic wiped out the Ming structures that once stood in the park. Dragon motifs are everywhere –on the staircase and the stone bench inside the pavilion. The park overlooks two lakes and the view the surrounding landscape from the top of the pavilion is extremely pretty.

BEYOND THE CITY WALLS
Southeast of the city, some 3km from the Xiangguo Temple is the Terrace of King Yu, named after Yu the Great, the tamer of floods. According to legend, this sage-king sought shelter here while battling the Yellow River and several steles commemorate his feats. There's a temple on the terrace called the Temple of King Yu. The terrace was also previously known as Ancient Music-Playing Terrace after a famous blind musician Shi Kuang who performed there frequently.

To the west stands Kaifeng's oldest structure–the Po Pagoda. The hexagonal temple was built in AD 974 and isn't easy to find – it's often mistakenly referred to as the Fan Pagoda. Of the original nine stories, there were just three left in the 14th century after floods damaged the structure and buried it in silt. Restoration work has added a six-storey structure on top of the remaining base. Altogether the structure comprises of 7,000 bricks with 178 exquisite patterns. Inside are Buddhist sutras engraved on stone. Get a grip on the railings as you scale to the top. 9km north of Kaifeng is an impressive yet intimidating sight: Heigangkou, the 8km wide Yellow River rises above the surrounding land by 10m, making it obvious why the city suffered continual flooding seriously. The riverbed rises continuously because the water is filled with so much silt and requires ever-larger dykes to hold back the water. It's also the silt that gives the Yellow River its color and name.