Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan Province, is located in the geographical center of China. It is an important national key city for railways, aviation, highways, electricity, and postal telecommunications, and an important industrial city in central China.

There are many tourist attractions in Henan, such as Shaolin Temple, Longmen Grottoes and Millennium City Park.

Shaolin Temple

Shaolin Temple was built in 495 during the Northern Wei Dynasty. It is situated in the beautiful Songshan Mountain, southwest of Zhengzhou. According to the "History of Ancient China", published by People's Education Press in 2005, Shaolin Temple is probably the most famous temple in China because of its long history and its role in Chinese Buddhism, and it is known as "The home of Kongfu and the Holy land of Buddhism".

Longmen Grottoes

Longmen Grottoes are located at the foot of Yique Mountain, 12km south of Luoyang City proper, where Yi River traverses northward between two mountain peaks which are just like a pair of Chinese gate towers. Indeed, Yique, the name of the mountain, actually means "gate of Yi River" in Chinese, and Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty, when enjoying the beauty here, exclaimed with admiration, "Isn't this the Dragon Gate!" and that is the origin of the name: Longmen, the "Dragon gate" in Chinese.

The rocks of the mountain are hard and tough, quite ideal for stone sculpture, and Longmen Grottoes are the third cluster of cave temples commissioned by the imperial court, after Dunhuang Grottoes in Gansu and Yungang Grottoes in Datong of Shanxi. The carving began in North Wei dynasty, and went on through East and West Wei Dynasties, then the dynasties of North, North Zhou, Sui, Tang, and the Five Dynasties Period, lasting for over 400 years. During this long period, the full scale and efficient carvings account to about 150 years.

Longmen Grottoes are truly a large museum of stone sculpture. Both an artistic expression of Buddhist culture and a reflection of the politics, economy, and social culture of the time, the caves have pre-served for today a huge wealth of physical data of religion, fine art, architecture, calligraphy, music, costume, and medicine.

Millennium City Park

Millennium City Park is a Song Dynasty historical and cultural theme park, located in Kaifeng City, one of the eight ancient capitals in China. It covers an area of 600 mu (about 98 acres), and the construction area is more than 30,000 square meters (about 7.4 acres). The built area consists of several architectural complexes which are reproduced in accordance with the proportion of 1:1 based on the famous twelfth century painting by Zhang Zeduan of "The Qingming Festival by the Riverside".