CHINA 5A TRAVEL
Step into Zhang Zeduan's Song scroll at 1:1 scale — 400+ Song buildings, 70+ daily shows, lantern-lit nights and a 700-performer lake spectacle in Kaifeng.
Millennium City Park (Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden, 清明上河园) rebuilds the most famous painting in Chinese history at full scale: Zhang Zeduan's 12th-century scroll 'Along the River During the Qingming Festival', re-created on the very ground its scenes once occupied — the Northern Song capital Dongjing, today's Kaifeng. Opened in 1998 and built strictly to the Song-dynasty construction manual 'Yingzao Fashi', it earned national 5A status in 2011 and now draws some 4 million visitors a year. Its motto is the experience in one line: 'step into the painting, dream back a thousand years'.
The numbers behind the illusion: more than 600 mu (about 40 hectares) including 150–180 mu of water, 400+ Song-style buildings forming the largest reconstructed Song architectural complex in China's Central Plains, and 50+ antique boats plying the recreated Bian River. The South Zone replays the scroll's street-and-market life — wine shops, apothecaries, street performers — while the North Zone unfolds as a royal garden around Jinglong Lake, crowned by the 31.99 m Fuyun Pavilion, the 21.6 m Shangshan Gate and the Rainbow Bridge's famous timber arch.
What makes it extraordinary is that the painting performs: 70–100+ live shows run daily, from the 09:00 'Lord Bao Welcomes Guests' procession to equestrian battles, water-borne warfare and 21:00 iron-flower fireworks, while costumed staff play Song merchants and townsfolk all day long. Visitors borrow free Song dress and step into the cast themselves. After 17:30 the whole park turns lantern-gold, and on Jinglong Lake the flagship 'Dream of Dongjing' — 700+ performers threading eight Song lyric poems through fire, water and moonlight — closes the day.
Highlights
Rainbow Bridge & the Bian River
The scroll's flying-rainbow timber arch rebuilt full size — double-decked for walkers and horses above, cargo boats below; Song-style cruises leave from Dongjing Wharf.
'The Grand Song · Dream of Dongjing'
The flagship lake spectacle: about 70 minutes, 700+ performers, six scenes strung on eight classic Song poems — from market bustle through 200 real torches to a moonlit 'Water Melody' finale.
'Yue Fei Spears Young Prince Liang'
The park's marquee equestrian battle — real horses, riders and explosives at full gallop; wildly popular, so claim a seat up to an hour early.
A Show Every Few Minutes
70–100+ performances daily: the 09:00 Lord Bao welcome, the cannon-and-warship 'Defense of Dongjing' water battle, the matchmaker's tossed embroidered ball, and the 'Hundred Song Acts' of acrobatics, opera and comedy.
Step Into the Painting Yourself
Borrow a Song costume free inside Yingbin Gate, join the 'Recruitment Order' role-play storylines, or sit a costume imperial examination at Sifang Court — the NPCs play along.
Lantern Nights & Iron Flowers
From 17:30 the park glows — lantern-lit streets, lit-up Rainbow Bridge, night boats — and at 21:00 molten iron is flung into the sky in showers of golden sparks.
Photo Gallery
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