Blogs from Kaifeng, Henan, China, Asia
August 6th 2011
I only spent the day in Nanjing and didn't even go and see the famous porcelain tower. Did have a slightly interesting run in with a soldier, funny and scary all in one. Then off I went to Kaifeng, eh ya; I didn't really feel either place so I didn't stay that long at either. Just short stops before making it to Luoyang.... read more
March 23rd 2011
Zhengzhou, the city in which I’m staying, has over 8 million people. It’s not a particularly large city by China standards and has a lot of shopping. There are several shopping malls within walking distance, a technology market not far from my apartment, and plenty of clothing and retail stores along the streets. Other than shopping and eating, Zhengzhou doesn’t have much more to offer. I like it because it’s not a town with a lot of foreigners or tourist attractions. It gives me to opportunity to be immersed in the Chinese culture. To get my tourist fix, I have plans to travel to other parts of the country. As you can see, I’ve already been to Beijing. My next trip was to Kaifeng. It’s a small city that isn’t too far from ZZ and I’ve ... read more
May 3rd 2010
Hi All, Wow what a weekend. We started out on Saturday morning. We left home at around 8.30 for the bus station, we followed the advice of the rough guide for our bus travel. We arrived at the bus station to find that the buses don't go to Keifeng from that bus station. So after much discussion, I'm getting quite proud of my chinese, we found out which bus to take to the other bus station. On reflection perhaps travelling on the 1st May was not the best idea the bus was rammed but nothing could prepare us for the scene at the bus station. It seemed as though the world and his dog wanted to travel to Keifeng. The queue for the bus was enormous. I may also need to add that the temperature on ... read more
October 18th 2009
KaiFeng, Henan China KaiFeng is a small yet old city in the eastern Henan Province in China. It’s only about an hour and a half from Xuzhou on the fast train. In May, we, along with another friend of ours, decided to take a trip there. Honestly, the only reason we went there was because our friend, Jane, was taking care of the tickets and had done all the research already. So with Jane as our tour guide, we took off hoping for the best, but expecting nothing special. We got to Kaifeng during the day and immediately realized that this town is not accustomed to foreigners. It took a little while, but we came upon our destination. When we went to check in, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the hotel was only 60 ... read more
July 9th 2008
After seven weeks in China, my VISA had all but expired, so I head for a small city called Kaifeng, a four hour bus-ride from Luoyang, in hopes of getting an extension. Unfortunately, because of the Olympics, 2008 is China's 'Special Year' and VISAs are hard to come by. In Kaifeng they could only give me a 10 day extension from that day - not much point when I still had 13 days left on the current one. I book a train ticket to Nanjing, the old Capital of China, but it leaves me two days to kill in Kaifeng. I visit the Da Xianguo Si - the Prime Minister's Temple, and see an amazing gold-plated carved Buddha, which took 58 years to carve and was made from a solitary tree. It has 4 faces and ... read more
June 2nd 2008
In Henan, we have four cities called ancient capital cities,they are Luoyang,Zhengzhou.Kaifeng and Anyang. Luoyang is famous for the Longmen caves, Guanlin temple,White horse temple and so on. Zhengzhou is famous for the Shang dynasty,3500 years ago,the king of the Shang dynasty made the capital in Zhengzhou ,so that is why until now ,Zhengzhou has another name "Shang city". Kaifeng is famous as ancient capital for the seven dynasties.Especially,she is famous for the style of the Song dynasty.In Chinese history, Song was divided into two parts,Northern Song and Southern Song.The capital of the Northern Song was Kaifeng.The capital of the South Song was Nan jing.Dongjing was the capital of the Northern song dynasty for 168 years.That is why kaifeng is rich in tourism resources.Anyang is famous for the oracle bone inscription ,the earliest Chinese written ... read more
February 4th 2008
On Friday, Jan. 18th we found ourselves back in Hong Kong with goal #1 being, change Stephanie’s tourist visa to a work visa. After crossing the Shenzhen/Hong Kong border at Luowu, we headed straight for the visa office where Cody kept our packs company outside (they’re not allowed in the PSB, FYI) for two hours while Stephanie waited for her #, handed in her paper work, and crossed her fingers. The visa wouldn’t be processed until the following Monday, which gave us the weekend to once again explore Hong Kong. After some extensive searching at the various hostels in both Mirador and Chungking Mansions on Nathan Road, we got serious and ended up, once again, at the New China Hotel in Chungking. Only this time we took full advantage of the fact that the Mansions has ... read more
April 16th 2006
We made it to take Melinda and her boyfriend to go with us to Kaifeng. The train was sick. It was sooo crowded. I don’t know how but we had to stand about 2 hours before we get to the destination station. It’s the city with the Legendary Judge Bao. The city has more cultural ambience than most developing cities in China. We went around the town then had a lunch at a crowded restaurat. We had to wait a long time to get our seats then shared it with other guests, but for my first time taste of xiao long bao, it was definitely worth it. We went to this tallest pagoda tower. They said it’s the tallest, but I don’t know if the tower was the tallest in the world, in asia, in china, ... read more
February 8th 2006
Kaifeng is good, unlike all other Chinese cities weve been to town planners have restricted the hight of buildings to three stories, resulting in an atmospheric humanist enviroment. Charm is especially abundant at 6.15 each evening as a night market opens in the town centre creating a bustling gastronomic extravaganza with speciality foods from all over the country. Weve enjoying some delicious Uighur kebabs, spiced lamb roti, baozi (as opposed to jaozi), hand pulled noodles, and an unidentified strange looking but tasty desert of fruits, seeds, nuts and herbs swimming in a milky ectoplasm: all in one day and two nights! With the little time leftover from our eating weve visited the tourist sights. Longting park, including dragon pavilion, turned out to be the worlds naffest attraction: Gaudy luminously technicolour banners and floats, and an awful ... read more
February 7th 2006
Kaifeng - 7.02.06 After all our recent time in modern Chinese cities, we wanted our next stop to be something a bit different. We decided on Kaifeng, a much less developed place where skyscrapers are banned for fear of destroying the old city that lies beneath it meaning that it has managed to escape much of the industrialisation of modern China. You can feel the difference as soon as you arrive. The atmosphere is more hustle and bustle than fast paced city life and there are many more bicycles and pedlos on the road than we've been used to recently. Also the architecture feels much more traditional Chinese in design. We only had 2 days to explore and, judging by the photos, we seem to have spent most of the time eating! We also saw a ... read more
