Kaifeng Attractions | Top 7 Things to Do in Kaifeng

Spear Flighting on the Horse

Skit: Mr. Wang's Son-in-law

Outdoor Show: The battle at Dongjing

Cockfighting

• Ticket: CNY 120

• Opening Hours: 9:00-22:00

• Address: 开封市龙亭区龙亭西路5号, No.5, Longting West Road, Longting District, Kaifeng City

Millennium City Park is a large historical theme park in the style of the ancient Song Dynasty based on the famous painter Zhang Zeduan's masterpiece "Qingming Shanghe Tu", which was painted in Kaifeng, the ancient capital of the eight dynasties. Interestingly, thousands of years ago, Zhang Zeduan recorded reality to his painting. A thousand years later, Kaifeng people reconstructed it from the painting to the reality. Wandering in the park, people often have a sense of going backward time. Millennium City Park covers an area of more than 400000 square meters, including 120000 square meters of water surface, more than 50 large and small ancient boats, more than 400 houses, and a landscape construction area of more than 30000 square meters. It forms the largest restored Song Dynasty building complex in the Central Plains. It is a cultural theme park with antique markets, folk customs, ancient royal gardens, and tourists can participate in a variety of activities in the large-scale folk custom Song-Dynasty themed amusement park. It takes more than 2 days to participate in each activity in the park. Here, we have listed some interesting activities including some representative skits and interesting acrobatics.

Note: The schedule above is only for your reference. The actual performances are subject to change.

• Popular Kaifeng Tour: ✔ 6 Days Henan Highlights Tour

The Dream of Hua

The Dream of Hua

The Dream of Hua

The Dream of Hua

• Duration: 70min

• Performing Hours: 20:10-21:20 (March to November)

• Ticket Fare: Ticket A - CNY 299; Ticket B - CNY 199; Ticket VIP - CNY 399; Ticket SVIP - CNY 999

• Address: 开封市龙亭区龙亭西路5号, Inside Millennium Park, No.5, Longting West Road, Longting District, Kaifeng City

Dongjing Menghua or the Dream of Hua is a large-scale water scene performance in the millennium park. The luxurious scene, the beautiful poems of the ancient Song Dynasty, and the high-tech lighting, the traditional buildings vividly restore the prosperous and bustling scene of Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, with a very impressive visual-audio effect on visitors. The Dream of Hua is composed of eight classical Song poems, showing the bustling streets of the Song Dynasty, and the prosperity and luxury of Kaifeng, the ancient capital city of China.

If you just watch the show, besides holding the ticket for the show, you do not need to purchase the entrance ticket for millennium park, and you can choose to enter millennium park as early as 17:30 and wait for the performance to start, or enter it after 2:00 p.m., but you can't leave the park halfway after it ends, otherwise, your ticket will not be considered as a valid one.

• Popular Kaifeng Tour: ✔ 5 Days Henan Cultural Tour to Luoyang and Kaifeng

Kaifeng Chrysanthemum Festival at Longting Park

Beautiful Chrysanthemum Flowers

Beautiful Chrysanthemum Flowers

Beautiful Chrysanthemum Flowers

Chrysanthemum has a history of more than 3000 years in China. It represents cleanliness and noble morality. Chinese people like chrysanthemum very much. As early as the Tang Dynasty, chrysanthemums were planted in many places in China, and the scale had been quite large. Later in the Song Dynasty, in every autumn, from men in the imperial palace to the common people, there was a tradition of appreciating chrysanthemum, hanging chrysanthemum lanterns, and drinking chrysanthemum wine. As the capital of the Song Dynasty, Kaifeng was the most famous chrysanthemum center in China, Even the Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty wrote poems praising the chrysanthemums in Kaifeng in autumn. Now, Kaifeng, as the national chrysanthemum development and cultivation base, after generations of cultivation, owns more than 1000 varieties of chrysanthemum. When the autumn comes, colorful chrysanthemums are in full bloom. In addition to the local chrysanthemums in Kaifeng, there are other varieties of chrysanthemums from all over the world. Kaifeng has become a chrysanthemum city, attracting a large number of tourists at home and abroad. Photographers come to the Kaifeng Chrysanthemum festival to watch and take photos.

Kaifeng Chrysanthemum Festival is usually held from mid-October to mid-November. The main venue of the Chrysanthemum Exhibition is located in Longting Park, and other sub venues are Iron Pagoda Park, Bianjing Park, Yuwangtai Park, Millennium City Park, Tianbo Yangfu, Daxiangguo Temple, Baogong temple, Hanyuan stele forest, etc.

• Popular Kaifeng Tour: ✔ 6 Days Henan Highlights Tour

Buddhist Band Performance

Buddhist Band & Kung Fu Performance

Buddhist Band Performance

Buddhist Band Performance

• Ticket: CNY 45

• Opening Hours: 8:00-18:30

• Address: 开封市鼓楼区自由路西段36号 36, west section, free road, Gulou District, Kaifeng City

Daxiangguo temple is a famous Buddhist temple in China. It is mentioned for its profound cultural heritage in many famous ancient literary works. Daxiangguo temple, built-in 555 AD, is located next to the Gulou night market. At present, there are many historic sites such as Tianwang hall, Daxiong hall, sutra Pavilion, and thousand handed Buddha. What distinguishes the temple from other temples is its famous Buddhist band performance.

Dated back to the ancient time, Daxiangguo temple has always attached great importance to Buddhist music, to the cultivation of professional Buddhism musicians, and attached importance to the training of skills and the tradition of playing music. As a royal temple, Daxiangguo temple in Kaifeng reached its peak in the Northern Song Dynasty. During large-scale celebrations, hundreds of famous musicians from all over the world were invited to perform Buddhism music together, which was unparalleled in the world at that time. However, it gradually disappeared due to various reasons since the downfall of the Song. In recent years, Daxiangguo temple has made full use of the excellent traditional hand-copied secret script music score to reproduce the long lost performance of Buddhism music. The 6 volumes of hand-copied music scores have been handed down from generation to generation by musician monks, with a total of 182 pieces. 

In June 2008, the Buddhist music of Daxiangguo temple was rated as a national intangible cultural heritage. Since its establishment, Buddhist bands have been actively touring around the world to perform Buddhist music. At the same time, there are Buddhist concerts during major festivals and Chinese holidays in Daxiangguo Temple, such as the spring festival, national holiday, the chrysanthemum festival celebrations.

• Popular Kaifeng Tour: ✔ 5 Days Henan Cultural Tour to Luoyang and Kaifeng