Sanmenxia: Hotels for Your Trip Planning

If you also include the broader destination of Henan, you can choose from a wide range of themes: archaeological sites, Buddhist culture, museums, landscapes, and regional cuisine. The following examples can help you weigh your own interests when planning your trip.

Cultural history: rock art, archaeology, and temples

The Longmen Grottoes lie on both banks of the Yi River south of Luoyang in Henan. They stretch for more than a kilometer along steep limestone cliffs. Nearly 110,000 Buddhist stone statues, more than 60 stupas, and 2,800 inscriptions carved into stone steles characterize the site. The area’s rocky landscape is thus complemented by both sculpture and written records.

Yin Xu lies on both banks of the Huan River, northwest of Anyang. The site is considered the first capital site in Chinese history to be confirmed by historical documents, oracle bone inscriptions, and archaeological excavations. The palace and ancestral shrine area contains a garden museum and a museum exhibition hall; check which facilities are currently open before your trip. While Longmen is especially known for its sculptures and stele inscriptions, Yin Xu offers a window into early history through archaeological finds and written records.

Henan’s temple history can also be explored across different periods. Ciyun Temple in Gongyi was founded in 64 CE during the Eastern Han dynasty. It became one of China’s earliest Zen temples and was given the title “Ancestral Court of the Source of Buddhism.” Shaolin Temple was established in 495 CE at the western foot of Songshan, northwest of Dengfeng. It is considered the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of kung fu. To the west of the temple is the Pagoda Forest: covering more than 14,000 square meters, it is China’s largest group of pagodas in terms of both area and number of structures.

Mausoleums, architecture, and regional collections

The Song Mausoleums in Gongyi include the tombs of seven emperors of the Northern Song dynasty and 1,027 surviving above-ground stone sculptures. They are among China’s two best-preserved imperial mausoleum complexes and are known as an “open-air museum of stone sculpture.” The Kang Baiwan Manor in Gongyi offers a different perspective on history: its construction and collection history spans the Ming and Qing periods and the Republican era. It preserves more than 3,000 historical objects, including steles, plaques, antiques, furniture, and calligraphy.

In Kaifeng, the Millennium City Park is devoted to the history and culture of the Song dynasty from 960 to 1279 and is designed around the painting “Along the River During the Qingming Festival.” One type of visitor experience described on December 2, 2025, transforms visitors into figures from the Northern Song dynasty; specific programming may change. Luoyang Museum, meanwhile, is known for its extensive collection of sancai (three-color glazed) ceramics. These examples differ considerably: one focuses on a cultural and historical park concept, while the other highlights a particular collection or the historic objects preserved at a manor.

Landscapes and regional cuisine

Henan’s scenic destinations include Yuntai Mountain, with its varied gorges and multiple waterfalls of different sizes. Its main peak, Zhuyu Peak, stands 1,297.6 meters high. Forest covers 98 percent of Jigong Mountain, an area known for views of seas of clouds, hoarfrost, rime ice, sunrise and sunset skies, as well as its plants, rocks, and waterfalls. Its resort villas also shape its character: built in the early 20th century by diplomats, missionaries, warlords, and businesspeople from various countries, they earned the area a reputation as an “exhibition of world architecture.”

The Red Flag Canal is an irrigation canal in the far north of Henan, northwest of Anyang. It winds along a cliff, passes through 42 tunnels, and runs beside the Taihang Mountains. In the 1960s, it was regarded as a great achievement of Chinese workers. A culinary contrast is the Luoyang Water Banquet: a regional specialty typical of Luoyang with a history of more than a thousand years. When planning your trip, you can choose from a range of interests—from archaeological sites and religious heritage to landscapes, engineering, and regional cuisine.

Discover more destinations: Shangqiu, Xinyang, Hebi, Zhoukou, Anyang, Xinxiang, Luohe, Xuchang.

For the broader travel overview: Henan.