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Explore the region
About Kaifeng Prefectural Government Office
The original Kaifeng Fu administered the Song capital and was the most senior prefectural office in the empire. The men who held it are the reason the name is still known: Bao Zheng above all, but also Ouyang Xiu, Fan Zhongyan and Su Shi. The present complex is a modern rebuilding rather than surviving fabric. It covers more than 60 mu with 13,600 square metres of floor space, and was designed following the Yingzao Fashi, the Northern Song building manual. Its central axis runs through the main hall, the council hall and the Plum Blossom Hall, with more than fifty halls and buildings around them, among them the Tianqing Daoist hall, the Mingli courtyard, the Qianlong palace, the Qingxin tower, a gaol, the Yingwu hall and the Yinbin guest hall.
It faces the Bao Gong Shrine across the water on the western lake, an arrangement local usage calls prefecture east, shrine west. The Henan provincial tourism description classifies the site as a theme park, and costumed re-enactments of court sessions and audiences form part of its programme alongside displays of documents and historical material. A second phase has since added a street given over to Kaifeng crafts, foods and costume.
What to look for
- The main hall, council hall and Plum Blossom Hall, the three buildings that form the central axis of the complex.
- The Qingxin tower and the Yingwu hall, two of the more than fifty halls around the axis.
- The reconstructed gaol, built as part of the prefectural office layout.
- The design as a whole, worked out from the Northern Song building manual, the Yingzao Fashi.
- The view across the eastern Baogong Lake towards the Bao Gong Shrine on the western lake.
- The second-phase street of Kaifeng crafts, foods and costume.
Location & getting there
Getting to Kaifeng Prefectural Government Office
Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.
- Search for 开封府 with 开封市 and 鼓楼区.
Find Kaifeng Prefectural Government Office
开封府 · 鼓楼区
The pin marks the area, not the entrance.
Sources & visit information
The linked sources support the identity and background described in this introduction. Opening hours, admission, activity availability and exact arrival arrangements have not been comprehensively checked. Confirm current visitor information with the venue; the original catalogue locality and editorial review flag are retained.