3-Day Shaolin Kung Fu & Central Plains Tour: Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Kaifeng

Arrival — met at Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou is not a city people travel to see. It is the crossroads of the Chinese railway system, where the north-south line from Beijing crosses the east-west line to Xi'an and the west, and it has been fed by traffic rather than by scenery for a century. Its importance is what lies underneath and around it: the early Shang capital was here, and the province whose name it carries was, for three thousand years, simply the middle of China.

Afternoon — the Henan Museum
Your guide and driver meet you at the arrivals hall with a name sign, load the luggage, and take you first to the Henan Museum, one of the oldest and best-stocked provincial museums in China. Entry to the main galleries is free but has to be reserved in advance with passport details, and the building does not open every day of the week, so your guide confirms a slot before you travel. The collection runs from the Peiligang and Yangshao neolithic cultures through the Shang and Zhou bronzes to the Tang and Song, and it is arranged so that you walk through the Central Plain in chronological order.

Cultural Insight — what the objects say
Three things are worth stopping for. The bone flutes from Jiahu, close to nine thousand years old, are still playable and are among the oldest complete musical instruments known anywhere. The early Shang bronzes were cast at a city inside modern Zhengzhou, at a moment when bronze ritual vessels were still a new and fiercely guarded technology. And the lead-glazed Tang wares in amber, green and cream — the sancai you will see again and again in Luoyang — were developed in the kilns around this region and were made, almost entirely, to be buried.

Evening — check-in and dinner
Your guide helps with check-in, gives a short briefing on the days ahead, and takes you to dinner. Henan cooking is plain northern Chinese food with a strong wheat tradition: braised noodles, lamb soup, stewed carp from the Yellow River. The evening is otherwise free — most people are travelling and turn in early.

Meals
Dinner

Accommodation
In Zhengzhou.

Morning — Shaolin Temple
Set out on a day trip to Shaolin Temple, about a 1.5 to 2 hour drive each way. Nestled in the scenic Song Mountains, Shaolin is celebrated as the birthplace of Zen Buddhism and of Chinese Kung Fu. As you explore the temple complex, you gain a glimpse into the daily lives of the monks and the history of their martial tradition. A captivating Kung Fu performance brings the discipline and skill of Shaolin to life.

Cultural Insight
Founded in the 5th century during the Northern Wei Dynasty, Shaolin Temple grew into a major center of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, and the monks' training is the source of countless martial arts legends.

Lunch — Near Shaolin Temple
Enjoy lunch at a restaurant near the temple, with a variety of options including vegetarian dishes. This is a chance to sample local flavors while catering to different dietary preferences and to reflect on the morning's sights.

Afternoon — Pagoda Forest
Explore the Pagoda Forest at Shaolin Temple, a remarkable site made up of stone and brick pagodas that served as tombs for eminent monks. The pagodas display diverse architectural styles and intricate carvings that reflect the temple's long history. Wandering among them is a contemplative experience honoring the monks who devoted their lives to Zen Buddhism and Kung Fu.

Evening — Dinner at Wangfu Restaurant
Return to Luoyang for dinner at Wangfu Restaurant, which offers a refined dining experience with a menu of traditional Luoyang cuisine and interiors reminiscent of imperial China. Indulge in local specialties and savor the flavors of Luoyang in an elegant setting.

Morning — an early start at Longmen, roughly 40 minutes from the hotel
You leave Luoyang early, because the light on the West Hill is best in the morning and because there is a long drive after it. Longmen is the high point of Chinese Buddhist sculpture: 2,345 caves and niches, close to 100,000 figures, cut into the limestone banks of the Yi river between the late fifth century and the Tang. The walk along the cliff runs past the Northern Wei donor niches and finishes at Fengxian Temple, the open court where a 17-metre Vairocana, completed in 675, sits surrounded by disciples and guardians. Empress Wu Zetian is said to have paid for much of it, and the face has been described since the Tang as hers.

Late morning — across the river
If time allows you cross to the East Hill for Xiangshan Temple and the Bai Garden, the tomb of the Tang poet Bai Juyi, who lived out his last years in Luoyang and chose to be buried facing the cliffs. The view back from the east bank is the one that makes the scale of the West Hill clear.

Lunch
A restaurant in Luoyang before leaving, or en route — your guide will advise on the better of the two depending on the day's timing.

Afternoon — the road east, roughly two and a half to three hours
The drive to Kaifeng crosses the flat eastern end of Henan. This is the North China Plain proper: wheat, poplars, and villages built on raised ground because of flooding. Kaifeng was the capital of the Northern Song dynasty from 960 to 1127, and under that name — Bianjing, or Bianliang — it was probably the largest city in the world, with a population well above a million, roughly a century before any European city came close.

Late afternoon and evening — the Millennium City Park
The park is a full-size working reconstruction of the Song city as it appears in Zhang Zeduan's painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival: the Bian river, the arched rainbow bridge of timber, the wine shops with their advertising banners, the teahouses, the boatmen. Staff work in Song costume, and through the day there are scheduled performances — acrobatics, a mock imperial procession, boat races on the canal. It is a theme park and makes no pretence otherwise, but the source painting is the most closely studied image of Chinese urban life that survives from this period, and walking through it at dusk, with the lamps lit along the water, is the most legible introduction to Song Kaifeng that exists.

Departure
Dinner inside the park or nearby, then drop-off at Kaifeng North railway station for the high-speed service to Zhengzhou or Xi'an, or continue by road to Zhengzhou, roughly an hour, if you are flying out the same evening. Please tell us at the time of booking which you would prefer so the vehicle is scheduled correctly.

Meals
Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Accommodation
Day ends on departure - no hotel night included.