Dengfeng: Shaolin and the Songshan monuments

Buses leave from the long-distance station opposite Zhengzhou railway station about every half hour. At Shaolin skip the kung fu show, walk to the Pagoda Forest of monks' tombs, and if the legs hold, the cliff path to Sanhuang Zhai. The quieter ones are nearby: the Songyue Pagoda of 523, the oldest brick pagoda in China; the Zhongyue Temple; and Guo Shoujing's 1276 observatory at Gaocheng, which measured the year to within 26 seconds.