Kaifeng

Kaifeng (kī-fŭng) [key], city (1994 est. pop. 535,300), NE Henan prov., China, on the Longhai RR. It is a commercial, agricultural, and industrial center. Manufactures include agricultural machinery, zinc, textiles, fertilizer, chemicals, and processed foods. The Huang He (Yellow River), just to the north, has frequently flooded the city. Kaifeng has often been a major center of Chinese political and cultural life. Founded in the 3d cent. B.C., it was, as Bianliang, capital of the Five Dynasties (906–59) and then capital of the northern Sung dynasty (960–1127). Zoroastrians worshiped there, and in the 12th cent. a Jewish colony was established. The city fell to the Mongols in the 13th cent. Kaifeng was the provincial capital until superseded (1954) by Zhengzhou.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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