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Kaifeng is a medium city of 700.000 inhabitants placed to 73 kilometers of Zhengzhou. It is one of few cities that, thanks to his somewhat provincial spirit, has not suffered too many transformations in the last years, and she allows to the tourists to think that it is a faithful reflex of this imperial China for that so many travelers look without finding. The city seems to arise in the middle of the field, and it never finishes of leaving a certain ambience of rural capital. On having known it a little more, it appears like a calm, tidy city, and whose urban structure continues some laws. Also, some of his most charismatic streets have been reconstructed to the ancient style and about his most significant monuments one has tried to support a few sets of Chinese's movie.
Kaifeng is one of the cities more agreeable than the Henan province. It has some interest monuments, and others, which without having it try to sell as such. In general these that the foreigners do not like, are those that more the Chinese like, since they describe aspects and situations of a past that makes us indifferent to us. Given the high price of the earnings to the most popular monuments, and the reality of which they do not bring anything special to the traveler who covers China, we advise to select carefully the places to be visited. In our opinion, for a traveler who is covering numerous cities in China, the only place that will turn out to be really interesting will be the Lounge of the Union of the Merchants of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Gansu.
Lounge of the Union of the merchants of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Gansu.
In a callecita that makes enough difficult to find it, there is the place where there were meeting the merchants come from these three provinces, placed to the northwest of Kaifeng. Here the members of the union were staying, and they were supporting business meetings. It was constructed during the dynasty Qing. What more he emphasizes is the care and dedication with which they have been trtabajados, not only the arches briefs of the principal courtyard, that the whole vigerķa of the roofs can be considered to be the small stone most beautiful, but.
Street of the Books
It is a street that passes in north direction - south in the east of the city. Most of the same one is reconstructed to the ancient style, but in her, instead of tourist places were established, as custom is done in China, the Kaifeng everyday life keeps on developing. Many of the shops are bookstores, but there is a good choice of the habitual commerce in a population.
Street of the Song
I joust the opposite to the Street of the Books, the Street Song also is reconstructed to the ancient style, but almost every house is focused on the tourist services. Restaurants and shops of craft happen during all his trip, from the Tower of the Drum up to the entry to the Park Longting. The place adapted to eat or to buy, it is not so much at the time of knowing the city.
Temple Xiangguo
Founded in the year 555, it was reconstructed by nobility during the dynasty Tang, when it receives this name and the current form. Now it is surrounded by an area full of shops, very animated, especially to the evening.
The temple, being still one of the principal monuments of Kaifeng, and one of the most ancient of the province, does not contribute anything of special interest.
The most interesting thing in his interior is: the room with 400 arhats in bronze of the dynasty Song and a good number of fabulous animals also of bronze; the china collections; the Guanyin sculpture with Thousand arms and Mil Ojos, and the Pavilion of the Sutras.
Pagoda of Iron
It is a tower octogonal of thirteen apartments, with 56 meters high, constructed in the year 1049 to lodge the relics of Buddha. It is a bricks pagoda, but those of his exterior layer are painted in such a way that there look like an iron. Many of these bricks have been sculpted by different religious motives. In the middle of a big park, it is one of the most advisable places In a side pavilion there is a Buddha five meters high and a twelve tons weight, venerated by the local population.
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