Kaifeng from Luoyang: Qingming Riverside Garden, Kaifeng Prefecture and Tianbo Yang Mansion, 3 Days 2 Nights

We leave Luoyang at eight, take the expressway east and are inside Kaifeng by ten. First stop is the prefecture on the north bank of Lord Bao Lake, timed for the gate opening at twenty to ten, when the yamen guards line the passage and call the salute. Beyond the gate lie the main hall, the council hall and the Plum Blossom Hall, and the short trial scene is performed once in the morning. Lunch is a local banquet with soup dumplings that must be bitten open while hot. The afternoon is left to the lake and the old street with nothing scheduled. In the evening we walk the Drum Tower night market, eating cold jelly and almond tea from stall to stall.

Attraction introduction: Kaifeng Prefecture is a reconstruction of the Northern Song capital office, facing south with the gate, main hall and council hall on the axis and the Plum Blossom Hall and Qingxin Tower to either side. Two lakes flank the approach, with the imperial street between them. The gate ceremony and the trial are fixed performances, with times posted at the entrance.

Tips: The performances start on the hour and independent visitors often miss the first one. Guests generally find that arriving twenty minutes early at the gate makes a large difference between the front and the back of the crowd. In practice we treat the gate ceremony as the anchor of the day and arrange everything else around it.

We enter at nine and walk in from the welcome gate to the Rainbow Bridge first. The deck is timber, high in the middle and low at both ends, and from the top the whole river is visible with boats passing underneath. The morning follows the Bian River through the market streets, with the escort office, the inns and the Sun Yang restaurant placed where the scroll puts them. Lunch is inside the park, and the afternoon belongs to the scheduled shows, drum troupes and the mock wedding, both performed in daylight. After dark the garden changes character, lanterns lit along the water and boats carrying lamps.

Attraction introduction: The garden was built from the scroll of Along the River During Qingming by Zhang Zeduan and opened in 1998, organised around the Rainbow Bridge and the Bian River with market streets, taverns and grain wharves laid out on both banks. Performances are spread across the site and rotate from morning to night, with the evening given to lanterns and water stages.

Tips: The site is large and a full day runs to twenty thousand steps. Guests generally find the river belongs to daylight and the lanterns to night, so the same path deserves two walks. In practice we build in an hour of sitting after lunch, without which the afternoon shows are hard going, especially with children.

The morning goes to Tianbo Yang Mansion on Longting North Road. Past the screen wall lies the central court and the twenty-four metre Tianbo Tower, with the carved scene of Yang Ye mustering troops on the ground floor and the selection of generals above. East is the drill ground, where the ten oclock cavalry show runs, horses breaking from the edge of the field close enough for the front row to feel the dirt. West is the garden with its zigzag bridge and waterside pavilion, which needs no queue. We walk a stretch of Longting Lake afterwards, where the chrysanthemum displays are still standing, then drive back to Luoyang after lunch.

Attraction introduction: The mansion commemorates Yang Ye, the Northern Song general, and replaces a residence that once stood by the Jinshui River at Tianbo Gate, granted a plaque by Emperor Taizong. The old buildings were lost repeatedly, and the present complex was rebuilt from 1992 and opened in 1994 on the plan of a first rank military residence, in three parts: office, drill ground and garden.

Tips: The cavalry show runs once, in the morning, and afterwards only the empty field remains. Guests generally find the east side of the drill ground against the railing gives the closest view as the horses pass. In practice we place the mansion on the departure morning, watch the ten oclock show and leave directly, which fits the day exactly.