Given a damp evening near Erqi Square, Zhengzhou feels less like a capital trying to impress and more like it's late for something. A cargo plane hums somewhere above the roofs; a train comes through the timetable with its own blunt confidence; people keep...
Kaifeng has the odd habit of making history feel casual. It has been a capital, a river city, a place buried and re-exposed by the Yellow River, and a city that keeps rebuilding itself without making a speech about it.
开封有种奇怪的本事，能把历史说得很平常。它做过都城，做过河城，也经历过黄河带来的掩埋和重现，还一次次重建自己，却不怎么张扬。
So when you stand...
This is one of those cities with a lot in its hands. 13 dynasties, peonies, grottoes, old capital memory, White Horse Temple, museum country, food, night streets. Overstuffed like that. But on the ground, Luoyang feels more like a city that simply never stopped...
Half the work before you arrive is already done. Pingdingshan is one of those Henan cities that is a flat mountain. Simple enough. You hear it once, and then the picture starts on its own. Yet naturally, it is much more than that.
平顶山是那种还没到，人名就已经替你画了半张图的河南城市。山顶平坦如削。很简单。你听一遍，脑子里自己就会开始成形。
The city...
Not arriving politely, Anyang comes with too much history and not much interest in apologising for that. You feel it in the ruins, of course, but also in the ordinary city around them, which is often the more convincing part.
安阳不是那种客客气气出现的城市。它带着太多历史，而且并不打算为此道歉。遗址当然能感觉到，但更有说服力的，往往还是遗址外面的那座普通城市。
The first thing I remember...
Hebi does not arrive as one big idea. It comes in pieces. A river first, perhaps. Then an old wall, a mountain road, coal dust somewhere behind the buildings, and, come at the right time, cherry blossoms with half the city standing underneath them...
Xinxiang is a plain city, which is not the same thing as a boring one. In north Henan, plain land can be a kind of personality. You notice the width first, then the weather, then the wheat, and only after that do the things...
Jiaozuo is one of those Henan cities that does not arrange itself neatly for the visitor. You get off the train and there is just the ordinary city first, which is often a better sign than a glossy entrance. A station, a road, some...
How about a city that doesn't sit up straight for you? Puyang comes in from the side. A bit flat, a bit dusty, a bit older than it looks, and somehow already in motion before you have properly noticed it. In Henan, that is...
Xuchang seems to have too many identities and little patience for a neat summary. It's a Three Kingdoms city, a flower city boasting old bridges, towers and arguments; and new shopping streets. All in view at once; it's a little messy, but more convincing...
Easy to flatten into a slogan, Luohe is a food city, river city, factory city. All true, but none quite enough. That you actually meet is a place where the water comes first, the industry came later, and the city never stopped smelling a...
Sanmenxia is not a city one can write about honestly by treating the Yellow River as scenery. The river is not background here. It is the reason, the argument and, quite often, the problem. Hence its very big damned dam.
写三门峡，不能把黄河只当成风景。到了这里，黄河不是背景。它是原因，是争论，也常常是问题本身。
The city sits in western...
Nanyang has enough history to make writing about it difficult. There are emperors, strategists, physicians, temples, fossils, jade and one of China’s largest water projects. Put all of that into the first few paragraphs and the city starts to feel like a list of...
Shangqiu has the kind of history that can become exhausting if handled badly. Shang origins, fire worship, ancient academies, Han tombs, old city walls, Confucius connections, Zhuangzi connections; after a while, the names start queuing up like officials at a ceremony.
商丘的历史，如果写得不好，很容易让人读累。殷商之源、火文化、古书院、汉墓、古城墙、孔子祖籍、庄子故里；说着说着，名字就像参加仪式的官员一样排起了队。
The better way is...
Xinyang does not feel quite like the Henan most people imagine first. It is still Henan, of course, but the air has changed. The fields are greener, the hills are closer, and the weather has a dampness that makes tea seem less like a...
Zhoukou is easy to underestimate; it does not arrive with a single famous skyline or mountain. It is flatter, wider, more agricultural, and at first glance more ordinary than many Henan cities. That's not a weakness; the place just needs a little longer to...
Zhumadian has one of those place names that seems almost too plain to be real. “Stop the horse. Find a shop.” It sounds less like a city than an instruction given at the end of a long road. But what be a long road...
Jiyuan begins with a problem. Two mountains are in the way. An old man looks at them, knows perfectly well that the task is impossible, but starts digging anyway. That may be essential Jiyuan, but today it's industry that dominates.
济源的故事从一个难题开始。两座山挡在前面。一个老人看着它们，明明知道这件事几乎不可能，却还是开始挖。
That, at least, is the...
