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Henan province made new achievements in economic and social development while taking new steps in modernization during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–25).
In the early 1950s, Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang stood before a niche on the southern wall of the Ten Thousand Buddhas Cave at the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan province.
For a long moment, he gazed at a statue of a bodhisattva whose face had long been destroyed. Yet, what he saw was not ruin, but a spirit of grace that reminded him of the line "Startled swan, roaming dragon" from Cao Zhi's (192-232) Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River.
That year, the statue inspired Mei's opera, The Goddess of the Luo River.
Today, more than seven decades later, groups of young students make their way to the grottoes site, where they wear virtual reality headsets and enter the cave where the statue stands. They see not only the fragmented beauty that moved Mei, but also a digital restoration of a face erased by time.
These experiences are just a glimpse of what awaits study tour participants at Longmen Grottoes, one of China's largest cave temple complexes and a UNESCO World Heritage site that represents "the pinnacle of Chinese stone carving art".
"We don't just bring cultural relics to life," says Ma Jialun, a representative of the cave site. "We want every participant to become a carrier of civilization."
Under professional guidance, visitors shape their own clay Buddha figures in art workshops and paint patterns from the grottoes' lotus-flower ceilings onto silk fans, brushstroke by brushstroke.
The programs at Longmen Grottoes are part of Luoyang's broader efforts to immerse visitors in a tangible experience of its history and culture hidden in its abundant museums and UNESCO World Heritage sites.
In late March in Beijing, Luoyang unveiled five study tours focused on archaeological exploration, Yellow River culture, and the preservation of intangible cultural heritage, aiming to appeal to travelers' cultural curiosity and enthusiasm.
"Beijing and Luoyang are both among the eight great ancient capitals of China," says Zhang Xu, an official from the Luoyang municipal bureau of culture, radio, television, and tourism.
Luoyang encourages travelers to explore the roots of Chinese civilization across the ruins of five ancient capital cities, explore 112 museums, and witness three UNESCO World Heritage sites.
"The city is a living museum of Chinese history," he notes.
Luoyang has established more than 100 study bases offering over 1,600 courses covering a wide range of topics, forming a comprehensive spectrum of information from the dawn of civilization to modern technology.
For the upcoming season, the city has prepared 900 tour routes tailored to meet the diverse needs of study travelers.
With multiple ancient emperors having paid homage here, the Longmen Grottoes have been systematically developing study tour activities since September 2021, transforming the weight of history into hands-on educational programs.
For adults, the site invites scholars to lead participants into the caves for on-site academic exchanges alongside its own experts, while senior guides provide up-close art appreciation. "Visitors find it unforgettable and immersive when they watch experts engage in live scholarly debate," Ma notes.
For younger students, experience and creation are emphasized. Thirteen original courses cover areas including technology and intangible cultural heritage. One particularly inventive program uses 3D-printing technology to create 1:1 replicas of relief carvings and inscribed stelae, allowing students to experience traditional rubbing techniques firsthand.
"As students brush and press, they capture the details of the Longmen Grottoes' content," he explains.
If the Longmen Grottoes are a brilliant jewel in Luoyang's historical crown, the city's museums form a three-dimensional narrative of "what makes China".
At the Erlitou Site Museum of the Xia Capital, visitors can explore the origins of Chinese civilization through more than 30 courses.
A course on the path of technological innovation in Xia Dynasty (c.21st century-16th century BC) handicrafts is offered for visitors to vicariously feel what it's like to be Xia artisans, as they try their hand at pottery, bronze casting, and turquoise inlay, recommends Yang Kexin, a representative from Luoyang's cultural and museum system.
"Visitors can gain an intuitive understanding of the innovative spirit that has been part of the Chinese nation since ancient times," Yang says.
At the Luoyang Museum, the summer Little Museum Specialist series turns students into docents, restorers, cultural creative designers, and curators.
"Through immersive, task-driven activities, they evolve from visitors into inheritors," Yang explains.
For those interested in ancient mystic sacrificial rituals, the Luoyang Museum of Ancient Tombs takes them underground, with courses on murals and brick carvings that reveal ancient views on life and death.
The relatively new Han-Wei Luoyang Ancient City Site Museum, which opened last year, allows students to walk the Silk Road through a specially designed study guide that evokes a time when Luoyang was a Silk Road's eastern terminus.
It leads them through the museum's galleries with a series of tasks: locating artifacts that traveled from distant lands, including a Byzantine gold coin, Persian silverware and Western glassware; tracing trade routes on a map; and imagining the crowded streets of Tongtuo (copper camel) Street, the city's main boulevard, where foreign merchants once gathered.
Inside the museum, a digital exhibition brings that lost world into view. Developed by Harvard University's CAMLab, the immersive installation uses holographic projection and 3D modeling to reconstruct the ancient capital. The museum also offers hands-on experiences beyond the screen. Participants can try their hand at simulated archaeological digs or piece together replica eave tiles.
Beyond these core venues, specialized museums offer their own experiences. At the Sui-Tang Dynasties Grand Canal Cultural Museum, visitors become part of the waterway in an immersive theater program where they are cast as merchants or boatmen traveling the artificial waterway that once connected Beijing to Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
Visitors can also try their hand at Tang Dynasty (618-907) three-color glazed pottery at the Luoyang Sancai Art Museum, where skilled craftsmen guide them through the entire production process.
"A museum is a great school," Yang says, encouraging visitors to measure history with their footsteps in Luoyang.
For those who want to understand not just how China's civilization was shaped but how its modern industry was built, there is China YTO. Founded in 1955, this leading agricultural and construction machinery manufacturer exposes visitors to a grittier side of the city's story.
"Young people can understand the struggle and pride of an era among gears and steel," says Guo Yushi, from the company's Dongfanghong industrial tourism program.
Stories about the first female tractor driver in China and the major pioneers who built the industry from nothing will be shared. A bus tour then passes the well-preserved Soviet-style buildings before arriving at the advanced assembly line for large-wheel tractors, where one tractor rolls off every three minutes.
Thirty percent of China's tractors are produced here, and they have been exported to more than 150 countries, Guo notes.
Hands-on activities include a clay tractor workshop and a tractor assembly model class, she recommends.
Zhang Nan, a representative of Beijing's travel industry, observes that a rising number of students across the country have opted for study tours.
Experts attribute the trend to a shift in expectations, as parents and educators no longer want passive sightseeing; they seek destinations where young people can touch, make and ask.
"The universal feedback is that the destinations that truly move people are those that explain culture thoroughly and make the experience profound," Zhang Nan explains.
Luoyang has stood out as a top destination, she adds.
"Luoyang's history is not a cold display but a living scene in which you can participate," she says.
ZHENGZHOU -- China's first one-million-cubic-meter-level salt cavern hydrogen storage demonstration project has been officially put into operation in Pingdingshan, Central Henan province, marking a new phase of industrialization for the country's hydrogen energy chain.
"Salt cavern hydrogen storage is a key technology to break the bottleneck of large-scale hydrogen storage and transportation, and to support the construction of a new energy system," said Yang Chunhe, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, at the commissioning ceremony of the project on Saturday.
The project was conducted based on the high-quality salt rock resources of a gas storage and salt chemistry company under the China Pingmei Shenma. Its key technological breakthroughs were led by the Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the participation of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec) in design and construction.
The project aims to create a salt cavern with a water-soluble volume exceeding 30,000 cubic meters and achieve a hydrogen storage capacity of 1.5 million standard cubic meters, said Liang Wuxing, deputy chief economist of China Pingmei Shenma.
At present, the project uses two compressors to inject hydrogen at a pressure of 15 MPa and a rate of 2,000 standard cubic meters per hour.
"The project has verified the long-term sealing capacity and engineering feasibility of hydrogen storage in layered salt rocks," said Yang.
The engineers of the project pledged to explore new pathways for the large-scale utilization of hydrogen power, and actively promote diversified application scenarios such as hydrogen-blended natural gas, hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks, and hydrogen-fired boilers.
In a quiet corner of a cultural and creative park in Zhengzhou, capital of Central China's Henan province, a special restaurant offers more than cuisine from Taiwan — it serves a sense of belonging and acts as a bridge connecting hearts across the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
Opened in 2024 by Lan Wen-chuan, 46, a native of Yilan county, Taiwan, the restaurant, Daodao Guilai, carries deep emotional significance.
"It holds my longing for my hometown," Lan said.
Lan's mother is originally from Luohe, Henan. Her parents have run a restaurant in Taiwan for many years — a connection she only fully understood after traveling to Zhengzhou more than two decades ago on a work assignment.
"My family saw it not as leaving home, but as coming back," she said.
After years of running an online business and experiencing life in Henan, Lan decided to open the restaurant after hearing friends from Taiwan and Zhengzhou say the city lacked authentic Taiwan flavors.
Drawing on her family's experience in the restaurant business, she set out to create a space that felt like home.
Upon entering the restaurant, guests are greeted by decor that captures the essence of Taiwan, including retro radios, old posters and hand-painted wall art.
"I wanted every detail to tell a story of shared memories," Lan said.
The menu features Taipei-style braised pork rice, oyster omelette, beef noodles, three-cup chicken and shrimp crackers. Lan even returned to her hometown to study from more than a dozen night market stalls to perfect her oyster omelette.
"One of my happiest moments is hearing a parent say their picky child finished a whole bowl of braised pork rice," she said.
The restaurant has become a gathering place for young people from Taiwan living in Henan. Lan said she hopes to help newcomers adjust to life on the mainland — from applying for residence permits and medical insurance to offering career advice.
She encouraged people from Taiwan to experience the mainland firsthand.
"Don't understand the world only through what you hear. Come and see it with your own eyes," she said.
Lan said that many young visitors from Taiwan are surprised by the convenience of delivery apps and the pace of development.
"What they see is completely different from what they heard back home," she said.
Xu Chu-qiao, 24, from Kaohsiung, started working at the restaurant after graduating from Zhengzhou University.
"For me, coming to the Chinese mainland to study and work is also a process of broadening my horizons," Xu said. "It's best if you come and see for yourself — that's the only way to truly experience and understand."
A plaque displayed prominently on the restaurant wall reads: "People on both sides of the Strait are one family."
Hsi Yun-lung, a diner born in New Taipei, said the familiar elements remind him of home.
"It feels like being back in my hometown. Being able to eat these dishes in Zhengzhou is truly special," he said.
For Lan, food is the most natural bridge.
"Many dishes from Taiwan originated on the mainland and developed their own character, much like simplified and traditional Chinese characters. Different in form, but the same at heart," she said.
Contact the writers at qixin@chinadaily.com.cn
Chinese people at home and abroad gathered together at the birthplace of the Yellow Emperor in Xinzheng, Central China's Henan province, on Sunday, sharing cultural identity among all Chinese people.
Dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC), the ritual carries on a tradition spanning more than 2,500 years.
This year's ceremony followed the nine standardized procedures recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage.
Along with the rituals, online worship events were held to allow global participation and interaction, according to the Henan Daily.
The annual ceremony has grown into a landmark cultural event for Chinese communities worldwide, acting as a spiritual bond connecting Chinese at home and abroad.
The opening ceremony of the 2026 Henan Entrepreneurs Convention took place on Saturday in Zhengzhou, Henan province, with the theme "New Development of Henan, New Opportunities".
Nearly 600 delegates, including representatives from China's Top 500 enterprises, industry leaders, and investment institutions, attended the event.
Liu Ning, secretary of the Communist Party of China Henan Provincial Committee, addressed the opening ceremony, saying Henan has deeply integrated into the Belt and Road Initiative and RCEP cooperation, coordinating air, land and sea silk routes to help companies connect to global markets and embed themselves in global industrial and supply chains, truly achieving "buy globally, sell globally".
At the same time, the province continues to build a better business environment to support the long-term growth of Henan merchants, Liu added.
Song Youju, chairman of Shenzhen SROD Industrial Group, and a native of Dengzhou, Nanyang city, Henan, said, "We are witnessing the province's improving business environment and strong support for returning Henan entrepreneurs."
Founded in 2009, the company is a national-level "Little Giant" enterprise specializing in embodied intelligent special-purpose robots for confined spaces.
The company provides intelligent inspection and customized solutions for specialized robotics industries, with a focus on emergency safety.
"Rooted in our hometown bond, we sincerely call on Henan business leaders to unite and seek shared growth," Song said.
In spring, Luoyang in Henan province moves at a gentler pace. Peonies bloom in succession — never loud, yet effortlessly elegant. Since the Sui and Tang (581-907) dynasties, the city and its famed flower have been deeply intertwined, shaping a cultural legacy of grace and refinement. Each blossom feels like a quiet page of history opening in the spring light.
The ongoing "Peony Capital" Global Al Creators Competition, hosted in Luoyang, Henan province, invites Al creators worldwide to submit digital artworks centered on the city's culture.
The competition seeks to explore new pathways for the modern expression of traditional culture and build an internationally influential platform for Al creative exchange.
ZHENGZHOU -- An artificial water channel system dating back some 4,000 years has been unearthed in Central China's Henan province, providing important evidence of the state-level organizational capacity and urban layout of the Xia Dynasty (2070 BC-1600 BC), China's earliest known dynasty, authorities said on Thursday.
The discovery at the Wangchenggang site in Dengfeng, Henan, was revealed at a forum showcasing the province's latest archaeological findings.
Two new artificial ditches from the early Xia Dynasty have been identified at the site, each about three meters wide with a confirmed length of over 120 meters. Running north-south, the ditches were connected to a roughly 10-meter-wide moat, forming a complete water supply, drainage and spatial zoning system, according to Ma Long, a local archaeologist leading the on-site excavation.
"The two ditches are consistent in form, demonstrating a high level of planning, design and engineering standards," said Ma. He added that an estimated thousands of cubic meters of earth were removed to build them, a task that could only be completed with large-scale, well-organized labor.
In addition to the ditches and moat, multiple minor channels, measuring between 0.3 and one meter in width, were uncovered. These channels were linked to individual buildings or kilns, enabling the rapid drainage of rainwater and wastewater, thus keeping the living environment dry.
"Such a large and hierarchically structured artificial water channel system indicates that as early as the Xia Dynasty, the Wangchenggang site had unified organizational capacity and standardized engineering practices," said Yang Wensheng, vice-director of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology. He added that this serves as an important archaeological evidence for the maturity of early state formation.
Further excavation and research work are currently underway.
