Kaifeng, China

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in the surrounding area. In the Spring and Autumn Periods (770-476 BC) the settlement was a border post of the Zheng kingdom and the ruler Zheng Zhuanggong established a grain store here. From then on Kaigfeng's importance grew significantly. Under the Wei rulers (220-280) it became capital for the first time and gained this status again in the period of the Five Dynasties (907-960). Kaifeng's golden period, however, was under the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), when it was capital for a period of 167 years and developed into a large city with a population of about one million. The extension of the canal system brought a further economic upswing. It has also been reliably attested that Kaifeng possessed a substantial Jewish community. The famous picture scroll of this period, ''The Qingming Banquet by the River'' (Qingming Shanghe Tu; today in the Imperial Palace in Beijing) illustrates the wealth and opulence of this epoch. With the collapse of the Song dynasty the town suffered severe damage and declined in importance. Around the middle of the 17th C it suffered a number of appalling floods from the Huanghe. In 1644 the town's dikes were opened as a defensive measure against invading Manchurians and as a result 300,000 people lost their lives. For this reason there are only very few architectural monuments surviving from the Song period. Today silk and embroidery provide an important source of income for Kaifeng.