The City of Kaifeng, Henan, China

1A. Kaifeng History

Kaifeng in History

Kaifeng served as the capital of the State of Wei (220-265) and later as the capital of China during the Five Dynasties period (907-960). It achieved its greatest fame, however, under the Northern Song (960-1127), when it became an elegant and prosperous city. It was laid out in three concentric circles -- an Imperial City, Inner City, and outer City --- a pattern later replicated in rectangular form by the Yuan Emperors in Beijing. Canals were built alongside its merchant arcades and filled with lotus blossoms.

Kaifeng was pillaged by invading Jin in 1127 and was never restored. Today all that remains of its former magnificence is a scroll painted by Zhang Zeduan (now in the Imperial Palace in Beijing) depicting the busy town center.

During the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), a sizable Jewish population of Mediterranean origin, who migrated to China in about the 7th century, moved to Kaifeng from Hangzhou. Jewish merchants and bankers wielded significant influence in the city during the 14th and 15th centuries, when they numbered over 1000. Three important stelae in the town, dated 1489, 1512, and 1619, memorialize the presence of this community. By the late 19th century, the Jewish population in Kaifeng all but ceased to exist. In the 1980s, only a handful of elderly survivors -- with only tenuous recollections of their Jewish roots -- could be found in the city.

In 1644, attempting to defend Kaifeng against the invading Manchus, the city elders opened the dikes of the Yellow River. A disastrous flood resulted, killing over 300,000 people. Indeed, the constant flooding of the Yellow River has always been a problem here, and may explain why Kaifeng never became a major industrial center. Today, Kaifeng is 53 feet below the bottom of the Yellow River.