Zhengzhou

Zhengzhou is young as Chinese cities go. It was a county town until the Beijing–Hankou and Longhai railways crossed here in the 1900s, and everything since — the provincial capital, twelve million people, the glass towers east of the centre — grew out of that junction.

The ground under it is much older. A Shang capital stood here from about 1600 BC and left rammed-earth walls eight metres high and seven kilometres around; they run through the Guancheng district as a long green ridge with a park on top and traffic on both sides. The Henan Museum, an hour's walk north, holds what the whole province has dug up: bone flutes nine thousand years old that still play, the Fu Hao owl vessel, a Spring and Autumn bronze pot with a crane on the lid.

Most people treat the city as a base. Dengfeng and the Songshan monuments are ninety minutes south-west, Kaifeng twenty minutes east, Luoyang forty minutes west. Two days is enough, and the museum deserves half of one.

Zhengzhou East (郑州东) is one of the country's busiest stations, where the Beijing–Guangzhou and Xuzhou–Lanzhou high-speed lines cross: Beijing and Xi'an two to two and a half hours, Wuhan two, Shanghai four, Luoyang 40 minutes, Kaifeng 20. The older Zhengzhou station, on metro lines 1 and 10, is better placed for the old centre and slower trains. Xinzheng (CGO) is 19 minutes from Zhengzhou East on the airport intercity train, or an hour by metro line 2 running through to the Chengjiao line.

Zhengzhou calls itself the city of huimian: wide hand-pulled noodles dropped into lamb broth with wood ear, day-lily and sweet potato vermicelli. Heji is the old lamb house, Xiaoji the three-flavour version. Breakfast is hulatang, a peppery thickened soup, often half-and-half with tofu pudding and eaten with pan-fried buns. The other two of the city's "old three" are Caiji steamed dumplings, folded like willow leaves, and Geji menbing, pancake strips braised in bone stock with pork belly. Summer nights are for barbecue and cold noodles at street tables.