Kaifeng 

cctv.com 04-30-2005 11:11

Located in Henan Province at the very heartland of China, Kaifeng is noted for having been the capitals of seven ancient dynasties. The city is loaded with ancient relics and folklores that can seem almost intimidating to first-time visitors. On the other hand, it is also a great interactive classroom for a dose of Chinese history.

Songdu Yujie was the center of ancient Kaifeng city, and still the center of today鈥檚 Kaifeng city. Coz this city has remained at the same location for about 1200 years.

Today鈥檚 Dragon Pavilion, or Long ting, is the largest park in Kaifeng built on the ruins of ancient royal palaces.

You can get a crash course of Northern Song dynasty when all the 13 emperors of the period come out to greet visitors at the main entrance around 9 o鈥檆lock every morning.

Dragon Pavilion had been the imperial Palace for many dynasties in ancient China. Actually because of its excellent Fengshui, there had been altogether 22 emperors being enthroned here. From Dragon Pavilion, you can get a very good idea of the ancient Kaifeng city layout. For example, this used to be the axis of ancient Kaifeng city; of course, the original palaces of the Northern song Dynasty were already buried under the two lakes.

The two lakes have been given some historical significance like most places in the city. It goes that in the old days, the lake of family Yang was always clear and the lake of family Pan was always murky since family yang was known for their loyalty and family Pan was notorious for their treachery in Song Periods.

Legend apart, what we know for sure is that the severe flooding of Yellow River over the past millennium has brought thick layers of silt on top of the ancient palaces. As a matter of fact, the current Dragon Pavilion is sitting on top of at least two ancient palaces from different periods.