Day 2 in Kaifeng

Touring China, the first thing in the morning is to get up early so that you could avoid the big crowds for breakfast. Some of my friends were jokingly saying that it was like going to the battle field and if you are late for breakfast, there would not be enough food and there would not be any seat for you. The thing is, the local tourists from mainland China are always too big a crowd and you could forget about enjoy seeping your coffee or tea and slowly and leisurely getting your stomach filled. It is China, my friends, unless you go to very expensive 5 or 6 stars hotel otherwise, be a bit early for your breakfast to avoid an empty stomach.

On the second day, we first went to the Henan Geological Museum (河南地质博物馆) in Zhengzhou where there were the fossils of many types of dinosaur and other ancient creatures found in Henan on display. There were also a lot of rare stones which were indigenous to mainland China. The museum is interesting if you like ancient stuff especially dinosaur but some of our elderly tour mates found that it was quite boring. It was fairly interesting for me though, I like dinosaur.

Henan Geological Museum

Skeleton of Dinasour

Fossils

Skeletons of Dinasour

After visiting the museum, we then proceed to Kaifeng (开封), where the ancient office (包公祠) of the famous Justice Bao (包青天) located. We also went to the Iron Pagoda (开封铁塔) and YuHuangTai Millennium Ancient Park (禹王台千年古苑). 包公祠 was built about a thousand year ago to commemorate Justice Bao, the honest and upright official, qingguan (清官) who served during the Northern Song Dynasty. A set of guillotine which Justice Bao used to execute the criminals were also on display (狗頭鍘, 虎頭鍘, 龍頭鍘). If you like the dramas of Justice Bao, you will like this place as there were some pictorial presentations of a few famous cases handled without fear and favor by him.

Drawing of Justice Bao

Statue of Justice Bao

A set of guillotine comprises of 狗頭鍘, 虎頭鍘, 龍頭鍘

The iron Pagoda which is also known as "天下第一塔" which literally means the world’s first pagoda was built with clay bricks and traditional Chinese wood structure but as the bricks used given the reddish appearance reminiscent of iron, it is also called Iron Pagoda. This pagoda was built about a thousand year ago and you will be surprise how could it survived the natural disasters such as earthquakes over such a long time.

Iron Pagoda "天下第一塔"

The YuHuangTai Millennium Ancient Park was built to commemorate Da Yu (大禹), the ancient emperor famous for his efforts to alleviate floods caused by the Yellow River.

After visiting the destinations, we put up a night at Kaifeng.