Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan province in central China, on the plain south of the Yellow River. Huimian, broad wheat noodles stewed in mutton broth, is the dish it is known for.

The Shang kings built a walled capital on the site in the 16th century BC, and parts of its walls run beside the streets of the old town. Zhengzhou was a quiet county town for many centuries, until the railway from Beijing to Hankou and the line from the east coast to the west crossed there in the early 20th century. The junction made it a market for cotton and grain. In 1954 the provincial government moved there from Kaifeng, and the city grew with cotton mills and wide avenues lined with plane trees. Zhengzhou University was founded in the city in the 1950s.

Yutong Bus, based in the city, builds buses and coaches, many of them electric. Foxconn assembles iPhones at a plant in the airport zone south of the city. Sanquan Foods, founded in Zhengzhou, makes frozen dumplings and sweet tangyuan sold in supermarkets across China.

The Henan Museum shows bone flutes from the Neolithic village of Jiahu and a bronze square pot of the Spring and Autumn period topped with lotus petals and a crane. Shaolin Temple, on Mount Song in Dengfeng, a county-level city governed by Zhengzhou, is known for its monks and their martial arts, and it is listed by UNESCO among the monuments of Dengfeng since 2010. The Yellow River Scenic Area, north of the city, has giant stone heads of the Yan and Huang emperors on a hill above the river.