Kaifeng touts itself as an eight times capital city, the most recent also the most significant - the Song (960-1279 CE). That's still a long time ago, and little remains. The city is most famous for the 12th century scroll painting 清明上河图"Along the River during the Qingming Festival," and much of the old city has been remade into a series of theme parks. 
We avoided them, instead finding an older school model of the famous scene inside a Qing dynasty trade hall. From there we made our way to "China's greatest pagoda," known as the 铁塔 iron pagoda since, from a distance, it looks like rusted iron. From up close, it's glorious glazed tiles.What sounded like it might be a quick jaunt up to see the Yellow River turned out to be a roller coaster of truck-ravaged roads with enormous puddles of rainwater, but the rain had stopped and finding our way along rows of flood control structures to the storied river was more than worth it.
