Wandering Heels: China Trip Leg 3: KaiFeng

Zheng Zhou was unbelievably dusty so Mum made us all wear these mouthpieces hehehe... no birdflu outbreak, don't worry!

We took a one day tour to Kai Feng, a neighbouring town and this was our tour guide for the day.

開封 Kaifeng is about an hour and a bit away from Zheng Zhou and is a crappy little town. Even so, it has a population of nearly 5 million, i.e. more than the whole of NZ... heheh. Kaifeng is one of the many ancient capitals of China. The four great ancient capitals of China are Beijing, Xi'an, Luoyang and Nanjing. We are going to all of them on this trip.

One major problem associated with Kaifeng as the imperial capital of the Song Dynasty was its location. While it was conveniently situated along the Grand Canal for logistic supply, Kaifeng was militarily vulnerable due to its position on the flood plains of the Yellow River. Actually, the city was flooded so many times that the tourist attraction we visited in the morning was actually rebuilt recently.

We went and visited the Memorial Temple of Lord Bao (Bao Gong) in the morning. Lord Bao was an exemplary official during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). He fought courageously and unyieldingly against corrupt officials and protected ordinary people from being exploited. He really made a great contribution to his people, so the people in Kaifeng established the Memorial Temple of Lord Bao to commemorate him and his good deeds. Unfortunately, the original temple was flooded by the Yellow River. The current Memorial Temple of Lord Bao is situated on the west bank of a beautiful lake named Lord Bao Lake. Reconstructed on its original site, it is designed in the architectural style and colored patterns of the Northern Song Dynasty. The temple includes Dadian Palace, Erdian Palace, and some other buildings. I didn't bother taking any photos because a) it was bloody boring and b) it was all reconstructed fake stuff.

We had an early lunch around 11 am to avoid crowds in the afternoon. Sealed and sanitised cutlery would have met Andrew's approval.

The tourguide gave a spiel about the famous dishes of KaiFeng and made them all sounded delicious so we ordered a set menu that had all of them. Reality did not match expectations as usual.

KaiFeng's famous local fish... average, nothing out of the ordinary.

Cold chicken... yuck. Tasted and felt dodgy because of the temperature of the meat.

Stir-fried veges of some sort? Texture wise, it resembled dried tofu.

Some famous local dish that they eat on a certain date every year. It tasted like mushy chunks of carbs, like bar gui.

Millet soup... mum didn't mind this. Isaac would have liked this probably.

Only thing edible were these buns... but the cloth they were cooked on......... lost my appetite.

Street of Kai Feng

Main stretch of the old town....

This used to be a famous gentleman's club apparently. Yes, another one.

Next attraction was the Iron Pagoda which was built out of glazed brick in 1049 AD during the Chinese Song Dynasty (960–1279).

There was also a very old abandoned-looking temple near the Pagoda.

After that, we continued on to our last attraction for the day. There were huge crowds of people there, so much for trying to avoid crowds by having our lunch early. Chinese people are very very scared of the cold. It was scorchingly hot and they were all wrapped up like mummies.

This was a park commerating the dude Zhang Ze Duan who painted this crazy long painting but it was really just a boring place crammed full of reconstructed fake buildings and cheap souvenir knick knacks.

清明上河圖 Along the River During the Qingming Festival is a panoramic painting which captured the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing, today's KaiFeng. The theme celebrates the festive spirit and worldly commotion at the QingMing festival, rather than the holiday's ceremonial aspects, such as tomb sweeping and prayers. The entire piece was painted in hand scroll format and the content reveals the lifestyle of all levels of the society from rich to poor as well as different economic activities in rural areas and the city. It offers glimpses of period clothing and architecture. The painting is also known for its geometrically accurate images of variety natural elements and architectures, boats and bridges, market place and stores, people and scenery. It is often considered to be the most renowned work among all Chinese paintings, and it has been called "China's Mona Lisa".

In the 5.28-meter long picture, there are 814 humans, 28 boats, 60 animals, 30 buildings, 20 vehicles, nine sedan chairs, and 170 trees. The countryside and the densely populated city are the two main sections in the picture, with the river meandering through the entire length. The right section is the rural area of the city. There are crop fields and unhurried rural folk—predominately farmers, goatherds, and pig herders—in bucolic scenery. A country path broadens into a road and joins with the city road. The left half is the urban area, which eventually leads into the city proper with the gates. Many economic activities, such as people loading cargoes onto the boat, shops, and even a tax office, can be seen in this area. People from all walks of life are depicted: peddlers, jugglers, actors, paupers begging, monks asking for alms, fortune tellers and seers, doctors, innkeepers, teachers, millers, metalworkers, carpenters, masons, and official scholars from all ranks. Outside the city proper (separated by the gate to the left), there are businesses of all kinds, selling wine, grain, secondhand goods, cookware, bows and arrows, lanterns, musical instruments, gold and silver, ornaments, dyed fabrics, paintings, medicine, needles, and artifacts, as well as many restaurants. The vendors (and in the Qing revision, the shops themselves) extend all along the great bridge, called the Rainbow Bridge (虹橋 Hong Qiao) or, more rarely, the Shangtu Bridge (上土橋).