After Luoyang, we decided to go the other direction and spend a day in Kaifeng, one of the Eight Ancient Capitals of China.

And once again, we boarded the high-speed train from Zhengzhou—it dropped us twenty minutes later at the new, massive Kaifeng Bei station.

Our first stop was the Memorial Temple of Lord Bao. Known as one of the most honest Chinese politicians, he’s now a cultural symbol of justice. It was lovely, but I’m not that into the Northern Song dynasty, so I’m sure I missed a few subtleties.

Then we walked to the old part of the city. This is when I started to really enjoy Kaifeng. Past the old city wall gate, we stumbled upon the Daxiangguo Temple, which turned out to be among the top ten famous temples in China.

We’re not religious, but I love the atmosphere in temples, starting with the overpowering smell of incense.

Burning it is a bridge between the human and spiritual realms, conveying prayers and wishes.

We each grabbed three sticks—the “magic number” because of the Three Treasures of Buddhism, i.e., the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha—lit them up, bowed three times and stuck them into the ashes.

And the ritual was repeated three times at different places in the temple. It was a wonderful journey into time and other beliefs.