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Henan: Four Ancient Capitals, in Chronological Order

Regions
Aug 28, 2026
Brick funerary pagodas of the Shaolin Pagoda Forest standing among conifers in Dengfeng, Henan

Henan is where Chinese history starts, and most itineraries skip it entirely. Four ancient capitals sit inside one province. Anyang, Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Kaifeng each ran the country at different points, and they are all within about two hours of one another by train.

So the useful way to travel here is chronological, not geographic. You are not ticking off cities. You are moving forwards through roughly three thousand years, one stop at a time. That reframing is what this guide is built on.

Where Henan Is, and Why It Was Always the Prize

Henan sits in the centre of the country, just south of the Yellow River’s last big bend. It covers about 167,000 square kilometres and holds roughly 98 million permanent residents, which still makes it one of China’s most populous provinces (Henan Provincial Bureau of Statistics, 2024). Zhengzhou is the capital.

The name means “south of the river”. And that position explains everything else. Flat, fertile, watered by the Yellow River, and sitting on the crossing point of the north–south and east–west routes — whoever held Henan held the Central Plains, which for most of Chinese history meant holding China.

That is also why the province has been flooded, fought over and rebuilt so many times. Layers here are literal. Kaifeng’s Song-dynasty city lies buried several metres under the modern one, silted over by the river.

The Four Capitals, in Order

Here is the chronological spine. Follow it and the province reads as a single story rather than a list of sites.

  • Anyang, c. 1300 BCE — the late Shang capital. The Yin Xu ruins at Anyang gave us the oracle bones, and with them the earliest confirmed Chinese writing. This is the beginning, and it is genuinely thin on tourists.
  • Zhengzhou, c. 1600 BCE and again today — an early Shang walled city, now the modern capital and your transport hub. Sections of the rammed-earth wall still run through the middle of town.
  • Luoyang, 25 CE onwards — capital to thirteen dynasties, on and off, and the eastern end of the Silk Road. This is where Buddhism arrived and where the Longmen Grottoes were carved.
  • Kaifeng, 960–1127 CE — the Northern Song capital, and for a while probably the largest city on earth. The last chapter, and the one that ends underwater.

Four stops, four eras, one province. Few places anywhere let you walk a civilisation’s timeline in a week.

What Makes Henan Worth It

Start with the writing. The oracle bones at Anyang are the oldest known Chinese script, and Yin Xu was inscribed by UNESCO in 2006 (UNESCO World Heritage Centre, n.d.). Every Chinese character you see on a shop sign traces back through that material.

Then the sculpture. Longmen holds tens of thousands of Buddhist statues cut into limestone cliffs over roughly four centuries. It was inscribed in 2000. The scale is hard to prepare for.

And then the martial-arts thread. Shaolin Temple sits on Mount Song, near Dengfeng, roughly between Zhengzhou and Luoyang. It is busy, and it is still worth going.

What ties them together is that this is where a lot of Chinese firsts actually happened — writing, the earliest state-level cities, the arrival of Buddhism, several of the inventions covered in our guide to ancient Chinese science and technology.

The Henan Nobody Puts on the List

The province is not only ruins. Up in the northwest, near Jiaozuo, Yuntai Mountain is a 5A scenic area built around the Red Stone Gorge and a 314-metre single-drop waterfall — the tallest in China. It is a full day out of Zhengzhou and it breaks up a run of museums nicely.

Kaifeng, meanwhile, is the most underrated of the four capitals. The Song city is buried, so the town leans into reconstruction and night markets instead. Purists grumble. Most visitors have a very good evening anyway.

There is also the water story. Sections of the Grand Canal ran through Henan, and Luoyang was its western terminus under the Sui. The canal is why Kaifeng could feed itself as a capital at all.

Best Time to Visit Henan

April is the peak, and for one reason. Luoyang’s peony season turns the whole city into an event, and the Peony Culture Festival runs through the month with bloom usually strongest in the middle two weeks (CITS, 2026). Book early or pay for it.

October is the quieter answer. Clear, dry, comfortable for walking, and the light on the Longmen cliffs is better. Avoid the first week, which is the national holiday.

Summer is hot and humid, and the Central Plains do not get a sea breeze. Winter is cold, grey and cheap. Museums are indoors, so a January trip is not the mistake it sounds like.

Getting to Henan, and Around It

Zhengzhou is the entry point. Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport handles the international flights, and the city is one of the busiest rail junctions in the country — high-speed lines cross here in all four directions. Our guide to getting from a Chinese airport into the city covers the arrival mechanics.

Inside the province, take the train and forget about cars. Zhengzhou to Luoyang runs in roughly 35–40 minutes on the high-speed line. Zhengzhou to Kaifeng is around 25 minutes. Anyang is under an hour north.

One practical catch: Luoyang has two main stations, and the high-speed one is Luoyang Longmen. Check which one your ticket says. For booking and station etiquette generally, see getting around China.

A Week That Actually Works

  • Days 1–2 — Anyang. Yin Xu and the Chinese Character Museum. Start at the beginning.
  • Day 3 — Zhengzhou. The Henan Museum, which is the single best overview of the province’s archaeology, plus the Shang wall.
  • Day 4 — Dengfeng. Shaolin and the Songyang Academy, easily done between the two cities.
  • Days 5–6 — Luoyang. Longmen, the White Horse Temple, the Sui-Tang city sites and the old town after dark.
  • Day 7 — Kaifeng. Night market, then out.

Short on time? Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Dengfeng in four days covers most of it. Anyang is the one that gets cut, which is a shame, because it is the least crowded and arguably the most important.

What to Eat in Henan

Henan food is wheat food. Noodles, steamed buns, flatbreads, and soup with almost everything. It is not one of the eight great cuisines, and locals will tell you so before you ask.

The dish to plan around is the Luoyang Water Banquet — twenty-four courses, served in a fixed order, nearly all of them soup. It is a genuinely strange format and worth booking a table for.

Otherwise: huimian, the province’s thick hand-pulled mutton noodle soup, eaten everywhere; hulatang, a peppery breakfast soup that divides people sharply; and Kaifeng’s night-market soup dumplings. Our guide to Chinese breakfast explains the morning end of this.

Practical Tips

  • English is thin. Less common here than in the coastal cities. Translation apps earn their keep, and a few phrases go a long way.
  • Book major sites in advance. Longmen, Shaolin and the Henan Museum all use timed online booking, and the museum in particular fills days ahead.
  • Pay by phone. Mobile payment is universal; see how to pay in China before you land.
  • Bring your passport everywhere. You need it for train tickets, hotels and site entry.
  • Check visa-free eligibility against the current rules in our China visa-free guide — the policy has moved more than once.

Common Mistakes

  • Treating Zhengzhou as a place to change trains. The Henan Museum alone justifies a night.
  • Doing Shaolin as a rushed half-day from Luoyang. The temple, the pagoda forest and the mountain need longer than the tour buses allow.
  • Going in April without booking. Peony season prices Luoyang like a different city.
  • Skipping Anyang because it sounds industrial. It is, and the oracle bones are still there.
  • Expecting Kaifeng to look Song. It does not. Enjoy it for what it is now.

Frequently Asked Questions About Henan

How many days do you need?

Four days covers Zhengzhou, Luoyang and Shaolin comfortably. A week lets you add Anyang and Kaifeng and take the chronological route properly.

Is Henan a good first trip to China?

Probably not the first stop, no. English is limited and the province rewards some context. As a second or third trip, it is one of the best in the country.

Zhengzhou or Luoyang as a base?

Zhengzhou for transport and the museum. Luoyang for atmosphere and for Longmen. Many people split the trip between the two, which works well.

Can you visit Shaolin and Longmen in one day?

Technically yes, and it is a poor idea. They are around 90 minutes apart and each deserves half a day at minimum.

Can international students study in Henan?

Yes. Zhengzhou University is the province’s flagship and accepts international students across a range of programmes.

The Short Version

Henan is not a scenery province and it does not try to be. It is the deepest historical ground in China, and it is startlingly easy to travel now that the high-speed lines connect all four capitals.

Go in order. Anyang, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Kaifeng. Three thousand years, one week, and almost no queue outside of April.

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