2-day Tour to Zhengzhou, Dengfeng and Luoyang

Set up in the year of 1927, Henan Museum is one of the oldest museums in China. Occupying 100,000 m², Henan Museum has been attracting an increasing number of visitors with 130,000 pieces of rarely seen historic relics displayed.

Because of Henan locates in the Yellow River basin, one of the cradles of Chinese ancient cultures, the cultural relic items displayed here are of various styles and of great significance in the study of the Chinese history. As mentioned above, Henan lies on the bank of Yellow River, so she has experienced many badly floods, which, in turn, attests how tough the cultural relics discovered here are.

The main architecture here is the magnificent Chinese oldest astronomical observatory that is as tall as 45.5 meters with five floors, which is deem as the center of the Ancient China. The precious historic relics showed around the pyramid-like astronomical observatory are the living fossils for you to learn about the Chinese culture.

Opening Hours: 9:00 -- 17:00 (from Tuesday to Sunday)
Ticket Price: 20 CNY
Location: No. 8, Nongye Road, Zhengzhou
Transportation: Bus No. 32, 39, 42, 61, 69 and 251 will bring you here.

Here are the ruins of the ancient city of 3,600 years old, which are discovered in the year 1950. It is home to the thousands of precious cultural relics, most of which are invaluable jade items reflecting the sophisticated technology. With a 6,960-meter-long wall as an impregnable shield, the Shang Dynasty ruins cover an area of twenty-five square kilometers.

Excavations here, and at other Shang sites, suggest that a ‘typical’ Shang city consisted of a central walled area containing large buildings (presumably government buildings or the residences of important people, used for ceremonial occasions) surrounded by villages. Each village specialized in a product such as pottery, metal- work, wine or textiles. The village dwellings were mostly semi-underground pit houses, while the buildings in the centre were rectangular and above the ground.

Excavations have also uncovered Shang tombs. These are rectangular pits with ramps or steps leading down to a burial chamber where the coffin was placed and surrounded with funerary objects such as bronze weapons, helmets, musical instruments, inscribed oracle bones and silk fabrics. Some also contained the skeletons of sacrificial animals and humans. Study of these human skeletons suggests they were of a different ethnic origin from the Shang – possibly prisoners of war. This and other evidence suggest that Shang society was an aristocratic dictatorship with the emperor/ father-figure at the apex and did not enslave its own people.

The large-scale excavation in Yin Xu has been continued since the last century. Apart from the 150, 000 pieces of oracles, abundant bronze ware has been excavated, and among them, Simuwu Ding, a 4-legged bronze cooking vessel is the biggest and heaviest bronze ware ever found worldwide. In addition to the oracles and bronze ware, people have also excavated much pottery ware and jade. The excavation is still in progress and great discoveries come forth from time to time. As a famous archeologist has said, more treasures are waiting to be found here.

It is of great significance in not only the historical relics of Chinese culture but also the human civilization of the whole world.

Opening Hours: 8:00 -- 18:00
Ticket Price: 90 CNY
Location: in the suburban of the Zhengzhou City, Henan Province
Transportation: Bus No. 1, 15 and 18 from downtown Anyang to Yin Xu Station will bring you here.

Since the completion around the year 210 BC, the monastery has experienced centuries of history, which, however, has been preserved amazingly well. With a splendid ancient architecture group lying peaceful inside its hug, this monastery enjoys a high reputation and population among the visitors who have ever come to have a close touch.

Although being embraced by marvelous mountains in every direction, the monastery is still shinning due to the magnificent buildings that is said to be the largest, oldest and best-preserved architecture group. For such an ancient architecture groups with a large scale of 110,000 m2, every single building with red walls and golden roofs looks like an old man who can tell you stories in the ancient China.

The monastery lies at the southern foot of Mt. Songshan and is hemmed in by mountains. In the monastery stands a pagoda, 40 meters in height and has 10 stories. It is the oldest brick and mud pagoda in China that has attracted an increasing number of tourists.

Opening Hours: 8:00 --17:00
Ticket Price: 30 CNY
Location: Dengfeng City, Henan Province
Transportation: Bus No. 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, and 9 will bring you here.

This observatory, built in the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1370), is the oldest well-preserved observatory in China. It enjoys a high reputation in the world for being of great significance in the study of the development of world’s astronomy and architecture.

The astronomer Guo Shoujing (1231-1314) designed this particular observatory in 1276, at the beginning of the Yuan period. The building is an angular construction made of brick and stone and stands 9.46 m high. A 31.9-meter-long stone rod stretches out in front of the building and is used to measure the sun's shadow. Based upon his own diagrams and with the aid of information collected by other observatories, Guo Shoujing worked out a calendar that corresponds to the present-day Gregorian calendar. A calculation that he made of the amount of time that it takes the earth to revolve around the sun was off by only 26 seconds.
 
This centuries old observatory is still of great value in the observation of the astronomy, from where you can have a try by using the ancient instruments to learn how the astronomers study the astronomy in the ancient time.

Opening Hours: 8:00 -- 18:00
Ticket Price: 40 CNY
Location: Gaocheng Town, Dengfeng County, Zhengzhou
Transportation: Bus and tour bus will bring you here directly 

Songyang Academy of Classical Learning, built in the Northern Wei Dynasty (368-534), is a member of the top four Chinese ancient academy of classical learning, together with Yingtian Academy in Suizhou of Henan, Yuelu Academy in Hunan, Bailudong Academy in Jiangxi. Having experienced centuries of changes, it won great reputation for the splendid cultural relics and the beautiful sceneries around.

The buildings of the academy are old but elegant. There are over 100 rooms covering more than 10000 square meters. The center axis consists of 5-yard groups. At the west side, there are two high and old cypresses named 'Great General' and 'Second General'. The Great General has a biggest trunk perimeter of 6 meters and a height of about 15 meters, while the Second General has a perimeter of some 12 meters and a height of about 20 meters. They are the oldest cypresses with over 2000 years of history, now they boast the oldest and biggest existing trees of the kind in China. At the gate of the academy on the southwestern side, stands an 8-meter-tall Tang Tablet, which was erected in the 3rd year (744 AD) of the Emperor Xuanzong in the Tang Dynasty. It is the largest stele in Henan Province and famous in Chinese handwriting history.

Embraced by steaming mountains, with clear streams circling around, here is a peaceful place for your option to spend the luxurious moment to enjoy the ancient culture and the beautiful landscapes.

Opening Hours: 8:00 --18:00
Ticket Price: 80 CNY
Location: Dengfeng City, Zhengzhou
Transportation: Bus No. 2 and 6 will bring you here.

Dahuting Tombs of Han Dynasty are located in Xinmi City, 6 km away from Zhengzhou City. They are one of the largest tombs built in the Eastern Han Dynasty which still exist today with an area of 33,000 square meters. There are two tombs, eastern tomb and western tomb, which have a history of over 1,800 years and are about 30 meters apart from each other. They are similar in internal structure and style. Long and wide slanting tomb passages were paved in both graves.

The western one is a picture stone tomb. It is built by brick and stone. It covers a large area, 26.64 meters long, 20.68 meters wide and 23 meters high. Under the tomb there is a layer of coal with the thickness of 0.5 meters. The pictures and stone carvings are of various styles. The pictures are mainly about clothing, food, housing and transportation of people in the Eastern Han Dynasty, reflecting the life at that period vividly. Among them, a picture showing the process of making toufu in the Eastern Han Dynasty is considered to be the unique one in China and the earliest recording of toufu in the world.

The eastern one is a mural tomb. It covers a relatively small area, 19.8 meters long, 18.4 meters wide, and 15.2 meters high. Painted with mineral pigments including cinnabar and mineral green 1,800 years ago, the frescos are still bright-colored as if they are just painted. The frescoes are mainly about the life of its owner, such as receiving guests, collecting rent, dancing, feast as well as sumo. There is a fresco named "Dances and Acrobats at the Feast", which is 7.3 meters long and 0.7 meters high. Painted skillfully, it enjoys a high artistic position in the art history of China and has become an important view in the Central Plains.

Dahuting Tombs of Han Dynasty are an underground civilization history rather than just tombs. The carving stones and frescoes not only reflect the local customs, etiquette, and production art, but also show their expectation of the life in the future. They can be regarded as museums of the carving and painting arts in the Han Dynasty, and provide some important clues for the experts, who are studying the customs of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Location:  Xinmi City, Zhengzhou
Opening Hours:  7:00--18:00
Entrance Fee:  RMB 10
Transportation: Take long-distance bus from Zhengzhou to Dengfeng and get off at Dahuting.

In the northeast suburb of Zhengzhou City lies the Ruins of the Dahe Village, a primitive village in the New Stone Age. 2.5 kilometers to its north is the Jialu River, 12 kilometers to its south the developed area of Zhengzhou City proper and 14 kilometers to its west the ancient Bianshui River. The ruins of house foundations, dating back five thousand years, show separate inner and outer rooms - indicating that group marriage probably no longer existed and that families in which young couples lived separately from their parents had appeared.

With more than 700 meters in length and about 600 meters in width, the ruins cover an area of more than 40 millions square meters. Its cultural layer is 4-12.05 meters in depth; the remaining cultural relics represent four historical periods of cultural development of 3300 years: the Yangshao Culture, Longshan Culture, Erlitou Culture and Shang Dynasty Culture.

Discovered in 1964 and first unearthed in 1972, the ruins have been dug for 21 times, uncovering a total area of 5000 square meters, cleaning up 47 blouse foundations in different periods, 290 pits, 184 adult graves and 170 urns and coffins, unearthing 3500 pieces of tools made of pottery, stone, bone, jade and some other materials.

The Yangshao Culture of the ruins can be divided into 7 periods: the first is 6800-6500 years from now, the early period of the Yangshao culture; the second about 6500-5000 years from now, the period of Miaoligou Culture; the third, 5000-4700 years from now, a period of Qinwangzhai Culture type; the fourth, 4700-4500 years from now, a period of transition from the Yangshao Culture to the Longshan Culture, which can be subdivided into three periods of the early, the middle and the late.

The Yangshao Culture is followed by Henan Longshan Culture, the Xia Culture, and the Shang Dynasty Culture.The Ruins of Dahe Village is rare in all the ancient ruins unearthed in the Central Plains for its large area, rich relics, extensive culture contents and the time span, so it has become a key historical relic under the state protection.

Location: Jinshui District, Zhengzhou.
Entrance Fee: RMB 10
Opening Hours: 8:30-12:00, 14:30-17:30
Transportation: Take Bus No.263, 308 or 118.