Kaifeng 
There were a lot of such kind of neighborhoods in ancient Kaifeng city, but can you imagine about 900 years ago, there used to be a community, purely consisting of Jewish people living in one of these neighborhoods.
Journeying via probably the silk route from Persia, a small group of Jewish people, the exact number remains a focus of debate, settled in Kaifeng as early as the Northern Song dynasty. The Song emperor bestowed seven Chinese surnames to these Jewish families 鈥 Zhao, Zhang, Shi, Jin, Ai, Gao and Li. They were allowed to join the imperial exams and became government officials while holding onto Jewish customs and religion. However, after generations of intermarriage and a combination of many reasons, the tiny Jewish community lost touch with its roots and completely assimilated into the Chinese population.
Host: Smell good. Well, about eight hundred years ago, you might run into a family that was cooking kosher food here.
Kaifeng is one of a few historical metropolises in China that still preservers a significant amount of ancient city walls.
The city wall of Kaifeng has been rebuilt many times over the history, and this city wall you see here was rebuilt about 150 years ago. But can you imagine, beneath this layer of city wall, there were still two layers of different city walls under ground.
Host: Wow, from outside you can see the city wall is pretty high, at least ten meters tall.
If I lived in ancient Kaifeng city about 150 years ago, I should feel pretty safe, because the whole city was surrounded by this kind of city wall, see, protected by cannons. A lot of cannons holes, and all built with very solid stone bricks.
The stone bricks were glued together by a special material made of lime, glutinous rice paste, and tung oil.
Once probably a battlefield filled with the choking smell of cannon powder, the city wall now provides a perfect venue for local kids to seek out some romance in a spring day.
To finish off one day鈥檚 sightseeing, I highly recommend you going to a non-frill local teahouse and listening to Henan opera. This can definitely help you to understand the local culture better.
Compared to other area in China, I鈥檇 say that Henan people are really avid followers of their local opera. Almost on every street corner you can hear the loud and invigorating tunes.
After a full day of history and culture, a trade of gourmet food can surely make the memories last longer, right?
You can find at least couple hundred food stands on the gulou city square, and it is just one of the night markets in town!
Since there鈥檚 a relatively large Muslim population in Kaifeng, a lot of the foods stand here sell the Chinese Muslim style gourmet food.
To the north of gulou square night market is Shudian Street, or Bookstore Street. True to its name, the 300-meter long street specializes in trading books, stationeries, papers, brush pen, and other study room-related items.
The street started to prosper in early 20th century when Qing dynasty held the last couple imperial exams in Kaifeng.
The architectures along the street are mainly of the late Qing style.
