Kaifeng's mornings are the good part — walk Shudian Street early

The town closes early and wakes gently, and the first hours are when it feels like the provincial capital it once was: bookshops, brush makers and seal carvers on Shudian Street, in business since the Song, and the Iron Pagoda standing where it has stood since 1049.

Do the pagoda and the Daxiangguo Temple before lunch, keep Longting Park and the lakes for the afternoon, and remember that the city you are walking on has five more underneath it.