Shangqiu

Lying in the easternmost of Henan Province, Shangqiu is one of the birthplaces of the Chinese people.

Shangqiu is the hometown of Confucius' forefathers, Zhuang Zhou and Hua Mulan. It is the origin of the Shang Culture and trade. In the antiquity, the ancestor of the Chinese people, the Suiren, Gaoxin, Zhuan Xu, and Di Ku all lived here. It is the capital since the King Daijie first set up the Shang Dynasty (17th- 11th century BC); it is the capital of the Song Kingdom in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476), the Kingdom of Liang in the Han Dynasty (206BC-200AD). Yuan Hao of the Southern Dynasty (420-589) and Zhao Gou of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) ascended to the throne in Shangqiu. In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), it was the temporary capital named Nanjing. There were town, prefecture and city in the seat of Shangqiu with ancient names of Songzhou, Suiyang, Yingtian and Guide. Its time-honored history and splendid culture has left Shangqiu a rich reserve of historic sites.

There are altogether over 200 cultural relics sites under special protection, among which 39 are at the provincial level, 2 at the state level, namely the Ancient City and the Han Tombs of Mangdang Mountain in Yongcheng. The Han Tombs of Mangdang Mountain in Yongcheng is a large group of imperial tombs of King Liang, it is rare in the world with so long a history and so abundant antiques. The Jade Clothes Sewn With Gold Threads inside it is one of the Ten New Discoveries nationwide in 1991, and the mural was claimed as the Dunhuang in the pre-Dunhuang period.

The inner city is in the shape of square and the outer round. With unique architecture in the city, Shangqiu is one of the top four ancient cities kept intact. Here also has the E'bo Observatory, which is the oldest observatory; the Yingtian Academy, which is the largest in the Song Dynasty; Cang Jie, the earliest character inventor; the Guide City, a city with most Siheyuan (single-story houses with rows of rooms around the four sides of a courtyard) in China; the Han Tombs of Mangdang Mountain, the biggest tomb group of the Han Dynasty in China; the Mural in the Tomb of King Liang, which is the earliest mural in tombs, the former Dam of the Yellow River of the Ming and Qing dynasties which is the longest and intact dam of the Yellow River, so on and so forth. With so many historic sites and scenic spots, Shangqiu is an inseparable part of the tourist route with Luoyang, Zhengzhou and Kaifeng in the west, Qufu, the Taishan Mountain in the north and Xuzhou and Lianyungang in the east.