Coming to the Millennium City Park to travel back to ancient China, you could witness the prosperity and appreciate local culture of Northern Song Dynasty in there. The Park is located in the northwest, the old city of Kaifeng. The Millennium City Park is a historical cultural theme park covering large areas, which was built in accordance with the masterpiece Riverside Scenes at Qingming Festival.
Let's first have a look at the imperial garden of the park. All the palaces and gardens have been carefully arranged. Standing inside the gardens, you could see the pavilions and the pagodas. Among these a majestic pavilion of 31.99 meters (about 105 feet) will draw your attention. From its appearance, you might guess it has four floors but actually there are another three floors hidden inside. It seems so tall that can touch the clouds. This is how it got the name of Fuyun (whisking the cloud) Pavilion. It was also this place where important royal documents and traditional Chinese painting and books are stored during the Northern Song Dynasty.
Another scenic spot called Rainbow Bridge is a well-known feature in the Millennium City Park. It is a replica of one of the ten ancient timber bridges. The bridge is 5 meters (about 16 feet) high. The first bridge was built in 1050, and reconstructed in 1998. Four 9 meters’ (about 29 feet) high columns, two at either end of the bridge, replicate the poles that were weather vanes at the time of the Song Dynasty. A white crane sits on a disk at the top of each column and they would turn into different direction when the wind blows.
At each end of the Rainbow Bridge you will find many folk performances. About 1,000 people wearing different traditional clothes exhibit performances for the visitors from 9:00 am to 22:00 pm. On the streets you can find acrobats, puppet shows, cockfighting and even a wedding scene. While in the park you will have the opportunity to see exhibits of folk customs and traditional crafts ranging from hand embroidery and displays of woodcut pictures and official porcelain and so on. At the end of your trip, you can buy local souvenirs for your friends and family.
Kaifeng used to be the capital of several ancient dynasties, so many historical and cultural heritages have been left, which makes Kaifeng has its own uniqueness. The Millennium City Park is the very excellent representative of that of the Northern Song Dynasty. Just come to this place, you could travel through history and find out what China was like hundreds of years ago.