An old Chinese legend has it that when Genghis Khan pillaged and ransacked his way through feudal China he left the city of Kaifeng unscathed because it was home to the country's brightest thinkers, best architects and engineers, and most beautiful chrysanthemums.  

True or not, Kaifeng to this day retains a wealth of historic buildings, most standing within the Kaifeng's ancient tamped-earth city walls, making it one of central China's hidden gems. The nearby Yellow River (Huang He), with its history of flooding the area with silt-laden water, has not only buried much of the ancient Song Dynasty capital under meters of rich, loose soil, but has helped keep Kaifeng from suffering the fate of many similarly sized Chinese cities—the combination of loose soil and unexcavated archeological sites has put the brakes on large-scale development projects, preserving a warmer and smaller downtown on a more relaxed human scale than you'll find in many modern Chinese cities.

An hour from both Zhengzhou and Shaolin Temple, and three hours from Luoyang, Kaifeng is small by Chinese standards (population: 4 million) and a welcome change of pace from the high-powered urban buzz of outsized growth champions further to the east. Despite its charms and historical interest, Kaifeng remains a secondary destination for most foreign tourists in China, which is a bit of a puzzle, as the combination of ancient relics, history, culture and cuisine make it an outstanding destination. 

Most of Kaifeng's better hotels are within the city walls and walking distance of major Kaifeng attractions like the Iron Pagoda, Kaifeng Museum, Yanqing Temple, Shanshangan Guild Hall and Longting Park, where each October the annual Kaifeng Chrysthanthemum Festival is held. Just to the south of the city walls stands the ancient Buddhist Fan Pagoda, and ten kilometers to the north of downtown Kaifeng the mighty Yellow River wends its silty way east. 
 

Originally called Daliang, and known to some as Bianjing, Bianliang or Liang, Kaifeng is one of the seven ancient capitals of feudal China, serving with distinction during the Later Jin (936-946 AD), Han (947-950), Zhou (951-960), and Northern Song (960-1127) dynasties.  Kaifeng also has the honor of being the first city in the world with a population of over one million people.

Its Yellow River location,  which provided convenient access to what is now Shandong Province, also afforded Kaifeng access to much of the Middle Kingdom via the Grand Canal, which began to take shape as early as the 5th century BC. Early rival kings and triumphant emperor capitalized on the regions centrality, strengthening the dynastic pattern that had begun with the Qin Dynasty in nearby Shanxi and extending it outward from its Yellow River heartlands. 

Kaifeng peaked in the 11th century under the Song Dynasty (960-1279), a period during which it was easily the world's largest city (estimated populations approach 1 million) as well as its most sophisticated and technologically accomplished. The Song, eventually driven south by the northern Jin, established a new capital in the Yangzi Rivercity of Hangzhou in 1127, leaving Kaifeng to the invaders.

Soon, another wave of northern invaders among the most feared in all of history overwhelmed both the Jin and Song. The Mongols made repeated assaults on the song's norther Yangzi River border, finally overwhelming the beleagured dynasty in 1127. The Mongols would go on to establish the Yuan Dynasty, with its capital in Beijing, leaving Kaifeng to sink into relative obscurity.

The city remained a vital cultural and trading center, and over time, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam would all make their imprint on this Chinese city. The first Jewish presence dates back to at least 231 BC, and physical evidence of a Jewish population dates back well over 1000 years, with legends—and a Song Dynasty stele—claiming a Jewish presence in Kaifeng going back almost 3000 years to the Zhou Dynasty. Though all that;'s left of the Kaifeng Synagogue is an old well, located on the present-day grounds of the No. 4 People's Hospital (if you're curious, hospital staff are glad to let you visit the site).

Christians and Muslims later arrived in Kaifeng, with the latter establishing a substantial Hui Chinese (Chinese Muslim) community that endures to this day, living alongside the majority Han and a smattering of Jews and Christians.
 
Today, Kaifeng's archeological value has led the government to moderate real estate development, leaving this city of 4 million fairly free of the high rises and modern ornament-topped boxes of most modern Chinese downtowns. The result is one of China's most pleasant, culturally rich and historically significant cities.
 

Like much of Henan province, Kaifeng is pleasant and temperate in the fall and spring and extreme in the winter, when it can drop to as low as six degrees Celcius below zero, and summer, when temperatures max out around 35 degrees Celcius. Humidity is also a factor in Kaifeng, with summers hitting sauna-like highs, while winters are usually white with snow.