Xiangfu District 祥符区

Setting and landscape

The district sits on the southern rim of the Yellow River's great alluvial fan. Repeated floods and shifts of the river's course, together with wind, have left uneven sand ridges and river-silt land, mostly 65 to 70 metres above sea level and sloping from north-west to south-east. All its rivers drain to the Huai, and the Jialu River (贾鲁河) is the only one that carries water all year.

History

The name dates from 1009, when Emperor Zhenzong of the Song renamed Junyi County (浚仪县) as Xiangfu County after his Dazhong Xiangfu (大中祥符) reign title. It became Kaifeng County in 1913 and was turned into Xiangfu District of Kaifeng city in 2014. Zhuxian town (朱仙镇), in the south-west of the district on the Jialu River, was a water and land transport hub from the Tang to the Republican era, and the Southern Song general Yue Fei (岳飞) defeated Jin troops there. In the Qing it was counted with Jingdezhen, Hankou and Foshan as one of China's four famous towns.

What to see

Zhuxian Town Yue Fei Temple (朱仙镇岳飞庙), founded in 1478 and one of the four major temples to Yue Fei, became a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 2013. Cast-iron kneeling figures of five "traitors", Qin Hui (秦桧) among them, face its worship hall, and one of its four stele pavilions carries the poem "Man Jiang Hong" (满江红). Muslim merchants also built seven mosques in Zhuxian; the North Mosque, begun in 1531 and rebuilt in 1744, is the oldest and largest.

Qifeng Old Town (启封故园), the Zhuxian national cultural-ecological tourism zone, is a 4A-rated scenic area opened in October 2016, with a grain-canal wharf, an intangible-heritage street, Xiabahang Street (下八行街), and Juxian Lake (聚仙湖).

Crafts and food

Zhuxian woodblock New Year prints (朱仙镇木版年画) entered the first national intangible-heritage list in 2006. The town already made them in the Northern Song, had more than 300 workshops at their Ming and Qing peak, and printed with pigments ground by hand from minerals and plants. The town's five-spice dried tofu (朱仙镇五香豆腐干), made by the Wang family's Yutang (玉棠号) shop since the late Ming, is braised with 14 seasonings including star anise, cassia, Sichuan pepper and clove, then air-dried, giving a glossy black skin and a tan interior. Kaifeng pan drumming (开封盘鼓), which the district calls its own, is performed by marching teams of large flat drums, cymbals and gongs directed by a signal flag.

Highlights

• Zhuxian Town Yue Fei Temple 朱仙镇岳飞庙: Founded in 1478; National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit since 2013, with kneeling iron figures of Qin Hui and four others.
• Qifeng Old Town 启封故园: 4A-rated scenic area at Zhuxian opened in 2016, with a grain-canal wharf and craft street.
• Zhuxian woodblock New Year prints 朱仙镇木版年画: National intangible heritage since 2006; printed with hand-ground mineral and plant pigments.
• Zhuxian five-spice dried tofu 朱仙镇五香豆腐干: Braised with 14 seasonings and air-dried; made by the Wang family's Yutang shop since the late Ming.
• Kaifeng pan drumming 开封盘鼓: Marching drum-and-cymbal teams led by a signal flag.