Kaifeng

Kaifeng (kī-fŭng), 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 Kaifeng was the provincial capital until superseded (1954) by Zhengzhou.

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Kaifeng

 or K'ai-feng

City (pop., 2003 est.: 594,887), northern Henan province, China. In the 4th century BC it became the capital of the state of Wei, and the first of its canals was built. It was destroyed by the Qin dynasty in the late 3rd century BC, and until the 5th century AD it was only a market town. It became an important commercial centre in the 7th century, enriched by traffic along the Grand Canal, and it was the capital of the Five Dynasties and the Song dynasty. Kaifeng was the site of China's only well-documented Jewish community (12th–16th centuries).

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Kaifeng

a city in E China, in N Henan on the Yellow River: one of the oldest cities in China and its capital (as Pien-liang) from 907 to 1126. Pop.: 810 000 (2005 est.)