Kaifeng II

We had an early morning appointment with the leader of Kaifeng’s society of Jews. Our tour bus pushed its way through clogged alley ways and dropped us off at a road that was too small for cars. We all crammed in her doorway as she told us her story in Chinese and broken English. Our program director was turned onto the idea of going to Kaifeng because Kevin, my roommate from last semester, had done research on this woman and the rest of the Jewish people in the city. Most of the descendants in Kaifeng trace their roots back to a lost Persian tribe who showed up in China around the year 1000. A small portion of the Jewish population came from Russian Jews during WWII and stuck around after the war. Racially speaking, the Kaifeng Jews resemble Han Chinese but of course do not have the same cultural traits. They are a small group of believers in Kaifeng, they do not have a rabbi but they are able to sing some of the prayers in Hebrew they learned from travelers that have passed through the area over the years. In any case, the Kaifeng Jews area passionate bunch. The woman who led the tour gave a story about how she once tried to become an Israeli citizen but failed. Although they would allow her to convert to Judaism and repatriate she has refused because she claims that she was born a Jew and has no need to convert to a religion that she has already been born into.
We walked through the streets, passed a mosque and a church. It seemed that the lifestyle on the streets we walked on had not changed for 1000s of years, regardless of innovation. Old men sat on their chairs, smoking their long tobacco pipes, simply watching foot traffic. There were skinned rabbits hanging in the air and people selling giant baozi. Everyone seemed to live in a small two-story wooden apartment building with little court yards in front.
We passed through a mosque and then onto a catholic church. The mosque was very old and built in a traditional Chinese architecture style, meaning it had curved slate roofs and the paint scheme was delicately created. It didn’t resemble any conventional mosque I had ever seen in Africa or Europe. The church however was what one would expect from a church. It had high columns and it looked similar to what one could find in the west. All the Catholics in my program sat and prayed for a few minutes and then we were off.
After eating “kosher dumplings” we walked through a historic museum of sorts. I couldn’t quite tell if the buildings were remakes or they had just been left in perfect condition since the last flooding of the city some 500 years ago. The most interesting thing that I saw was a miniature rendition of what the streets of Kaifeng were supposed to look like 1000 years ago. There was almost no change to the present day except for the fact that in the 21st century cars roamed the streets. Every street in Kaifeng might be the same as it was 1000 years ago in China. And that is why this city blew me away.
Our next stop before the train ride home was at another historic park of the iron pagoda. I walked around the premise for a little while but I had no interest in waiting in line to get to the top of the monument, especially when there were only two windows in the whole thing. Instead I kept exploring and found a man made pond. It was big enough to cater to a steady amount of fishermen. One guy had a troop of body guards around him as he threw a few lines in. I walked past their militant stares and ended up at the historic city wall. There at the edge of all things Kaifeng, there were no people.
At the train station we waited for a good hour for a late train to show up. Although the train back to Shanghai took seven hours it was a great time to pass with friends. We drank beers and played cards mostly. The train, which is the same design as the Swedish X2000, was brand new and very comfortable.
Back in Shanghai, it was clear by the steel and neon that I was back in the 21st century.