Beyond The City Walls
2 min readSoutheast of the city，some 2 miles（3 km）from the Xiangguo Temple is the Terrace of King Yu（yiwang toi），named after Yu the Great（Da yu），the tamer of floods.
According to legend，this sage-king sought shelter here while battling the Yellow River anc several steles commemorate his feats.There’s a temple on the terrace called the Temple of King Yu（yuwing miao）.The terrace was also previously known as Ancient Music-Playing Terrace（guchui tai）after a famous blind musician Shi Kuang who performed there frequently.
To the west stands Kaifeng’s oldest structure-the Po Pagoda（pota）.The hexagonal temple was built in AD 974 and isn’t easy to find-it’s often mistakenly referred to as the Fan Pagoda.Of the original nine stories，there were just three left in the 14th century after floods damaged the structure and buried it in silt.Restoration work has added a six-story structure on top of the remaining base.Altogether the structure comprises 7，000 bricks with 178 exquisite patterns.Inside are Buddhist sutras engraved on stone.Get a grip on the railings as you scale to the top.
Playing chess with an elderly man at Dragon Pavilion Park while a large crowd of spectators build up around us，giving advice and a running commentary.
Shopping for souvenirs in a hyperactive market and getting a vendor to lower the price by 60%.Pottering around the city center’s old streets and drinking in the frenzied street activities.
5.6 miles（9 km）north of Kaifeng is an impressive yet intimidating sight:Heigang kou（heigingkou），where the 5-mile-wide（8 km）Yellow River rises above the surroundin land by 33 feet（10 m），making it obvious why the city suffered continual flooding.The riverbed rises continuously because the water is filled with so much silt and requires ever-larger dykes to hold back the water.It’s also the silt that gives the Yellow River its color and name.
