A Northern Plains City Where Ancient Battles Echo and Mountains Rise Beyond the City Edge
Xinxiang sits in northern Henan, a place shaped by the forces that have remade China itself. The Battle of Muye happened here, where armies overthrew the Shang dynasty. The Chenqiao Mutiny—when Later Zhou forces loyal to Zhao Kuangyin mutinied against the rule of Guo Zongxun at Chenqiao Station in modern-day Fengqiu County and declared Zhao emperor—marked the beginning of the Song dynasty. These were not ceremonies but violent ruptures in history, and walking Xinxiang means walking ground where rival claims to empire were decided. Today the city is a working place: an industrial centre on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, surrounded by fields and threading toward the Yellow River to its south. But what makes it worth your time is what lies beyond the urban core—mountain valleys in the Taihang range where villages are built entirely of stone, where tunnels carved by residents in the 1970s have become roads, and where waterfalls and clifftop views reward those who venture into the terrain.
What to See Downtown
Begin in the built-up districts—Hongqi, Weibin, Muye, Fengquan—where the everyday life of the city unfolds. The Xinxiang Museum (also called Pingyuan Museum) on Renmin East Road offers free entry and sits as the natural starting point for understanding the region's role in Chinese history. Just as instructive is Lu Wang's Tomb, the funerary monument of Emperor Wanli's brother, a Ming-dynasty structure so carefully modelled on the imperial tombs near Beijing that it reads almost as an act of architectural defiance. The tomb features thirteen sets of stone animals along its ceremonial way—some mythical, some actual creatures—though the Cultural Revolution left marks that restoration has not entirely healed. Dongning Temple spreads across eighteen acres with halls dedicated to various Buddhist and Daoist figures, its seven-storey pagoda rising twenty-six metres above the grounds.
Bigan Temple and the Weihui Detour
West of the city centre, in Weihui, stands Bigan Temple, covering more than four hundred acres. This is worth a half-day excursion. The temple complex unfolds in a series of named courtyards and ceremonial spaces—the Bigan Wealth and Culture Square, the Hall of Worship, a stone workshop—culminating in what the site calls the "heavenly burial tomb," a massive mound separated from the main temple by a yin-and-yang wall. The scale is monumental without being grandiose; it feels like a place built to last through centuries.
Mountains and Valleys: Huixian County and the Taihang Edge
The true draw for many visitors lies an hour or so north and west, where the Taihang Mountains begin and the landscape becomes vertical. The Wanxianshan Scenic Area—known as the Guoliang Tunnel area—ranks among the most distinctive terrain in the region. The valley is walled by sandstone cliffs over one hundred metres high, with villages perched on top, and above those, even higher limestone cliffs. The buildings throughout are constructed from local stone slabs mortared with white, creating a stark monochromatic effect that dominates the visual environment. In the 1970s, residents of Guoliang village carved a tunnel through the lower cliff to link their homes to the outside; it is now a tourist route. Just across the border in Shanxi, the village of Kunshan hacked an even longer, more precarious tunnel through the upper cliff—accessible only to minivans and off-limits to ordinary traffic, though local drivers will negotiate a price to take you.
Other routes into and around the Taihang foothills deserve attention. The Baligou Scenic Area features the "Taihang Heavenly Waterfall," a cascade that draws visitors in summer, plus the Red Stone River, whose waters and geological colouring have earned it the nickname "Taihang Heavenly River." The Guanshan Geopark showcases what the park designates as the "First Landslide Wonders"—stone gorges, pillar forests, waterfalls, and limestone formations arranged on cliffsides. Qiu Gully, in Huixian County, is marketed as a "natural zoo" for its population of wild macaques, civets, badgers, and birds, alongside fossil deposits and natural stone formations. For those comfortable with exposure, the Xiangyun Observation Platform at Henan Baoquan Tourist Resort offers a glass-bottomed walkway—essentially a via ferrata with no railings, only a wire attachment—that projects over a valley and reservoir below.
Baiyun Temple sits in the Baiyun Forest Park at the southeast foot of the Taihang, approved as a national macaque nature reserve in 1999, with forest coverage at ninety-five percent across 2,591 hectares. Tianzhugou Grand Canyon offers geological layers visible in the rock faces, crystal streams, and the option to raft stretches of the water.
Eating and Evening Streets
Braised mutton is the signature dish—prepared with seasonings and slow-cooked until the meat yields to pressure, it defines local taste. Niu Zhongxi Baked Flatbread, a layered, flaky bread, is another essential local preparation. The actual eating experience is concentrated on Xidajie, the famous snack night street, which reaches peak foot traffic around midnight and draws young people especially. The street operates as a collection of small food carts with low repetition in offerings—both Xinxiang specialties and Southeast Asian dishes appear. DL, a landmark building facility downtown, concentrates many local snacks under one roof and functions as a social hub where residents gather. The Yiyuan area, not a single building but a retro-styled neighbourhood, has accumulated coffee shops with distinctive décor and old bookstores that evoke Xinxiang in the 1980s—a comfortable place to spend an afternoon. The Oriental Walking Street caters to those seeking antique clothing stores in various aesthetic registers (Gothic, rock, American retro, contemporary Chinese style) alongside craft shops where you can make your own phone cases or wallets.
When to Visit
Xinxiang has a temperate continental monsoon climate with four distinct seasons, marked by dry conditions, wind, and large temperature swings. Spring brings gradually rising temperatures and increasing rain, making it suitable for outdoor activity. Summer is the hottest season with high temperature and high precipitation, plus long sunshine hours, drawing swimmers and water-sports enthusiasts. Autumn offers milder, drier conditions overall. Winter turns cold and dry with little precipitation, making it suitable for skiing and other winter sports.
Xinxiang is not a destination that announces itself loudly, but it commands attention if you have an interest in the physical traces of Chinese history, the ability to move beyond metropolitan districts into genuine mountain terrain, or simply a taste for places where locals still outnumber tourists. The mountains are genuine, the stone villages are built to last, and the tunnels were carved without fanfare by people determined to remain connected to the world. Start at the museum, visit the tomb, then head north toward the cliffs.