During the National Day holiday, as the train entered Henan, every city it passed triggered a tourism promotion text message from the local mobile carrier. Just past Anyang, a message about Anyang arrived; entering Xinxiang's territory, then Zhengzhou, and finally heading east toward Kaifeng. Fields flashed by outside the window, and the tourism introductions on the phone changed with each stop.
Currently, more and more tourists are abandoning superficial scenic spot check-ins and heading to Kaifeng's old city to seek the flavors of Song dynasty life. Century-old snacks rooted in the streets and alleys, and Song banquet dishes replicated from ancient texts, are bringing the thousand-year-old Bianjing culinary culture from history into reality. Immersive food tourism continues to heat up foot traffic in the old city, driving a comprehensive rise in local holiday consumption.
Exploring the Old City Through Food Guides
A tourist from Xinjiang told our reporter that she enjoys in-depth travel and prefers to blend into the daily life of locals. "Kaifeng has many halal restaurants. A friend recommended going to Shunhe Hui District to eat, which is an old Hui Muslim gathering area and a very famous food district in Kaifeng. Four-flavor dishes and mutton soup are concentrated in this area. We specifically stayed in the old city and visited over 20 food spots in two days."
Kaifeng awakens in the morning amid swirling steam. Around 9 a.m., the reporter arrived at a famous mutton soup restaurant in the old city. A large iron pot sat on the stove, with big chunks of mutton simmering in the rich broth, bubbling away, white steam carrying the meat's aroma filling the kitchen. The chef, holding a long ladle, scooped clear original broth from the boiling pot into a white porcelain bowl, then casually grabbed a handful of freshly cut cilantro and spread it into the soup. A bowl of mutton soup arrived at the table, the broth clear and smooth, with tiny flecks of oil floating on top, and bright green cilantro unfurling on the surface. Beside it, a basket held crispy baked guokui flatbread, paired with a small dish of refreshing pickles, with salt and chili on the side, allowing diners to adjust the flavor to their own taste. Not pursuing a thick, milky white consistency, Kaifeng's mutton soup emphasizes original flavors. The slowly simmered broth is fresh without gaminess, warm and smooth on the palate. Break off a piece of guokui and soak it in the soup, and the bread absorbs the meat's richness. A bowl of mutton soup in the morning, breaking a sweat, is the locals' secret to starting the day.
The flavors of the old city are inseparable from this. If street-side mutton soup represents everyday folk life, then the Song banquet at the Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden is a replication of ancient feasts, bringing thousand-year-old Song imperial banquet culture out of ancient texts and into reality. The reporter observed that every dish at the Song banquet has an origin, with many dishes noted as originating from "The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor" written by Meng Yuanlao of the Northern Song dynasty. For example, "milk-cooked lamb" recreates the flavor and charm of Song dynasty marketplace banquets. Another example is "Golden Stamens and Flowing Rosy Clouds," which shapes tofu into chrysanthemum flowers, with the dish name taken from Su Shi's poem "Cold Chrysanthemum by Zhao Chang," blending the dish with the Song dynasty Bianjing Double Ninth Festival banquet. Dishes from banquet tables at Eastern Capital restaurants a thousand years ago now land on modern people's dining tables. The menu is designed as a long scroll, and when unrolled, one can see dish names such as "Hundred Blessings Seal Delicacy" and "Dragon Chart Black Jade Sashimi," paired with small ancient paintings of Song dynasty cooks and banquet music.
Xiao Zhao from Wuhan drove to Kaifeng for sightseeing. She showed the reporter her pre-made "food guide," including Zhouqiao pan-fried buns, Li Xiaoji spicy soup, Old Bai's braised noodles, Hua San donkey meat soup, Zhao family four-flavor dishes, Tian Ji rice noodles, and the eight-batch fried dough cakes with baked flatbread next to the Ancient Guanyin Temple. "The locals say my guide is very professional. These past few days I've been eating in this exact order."
At a private Kaifeng restaurant, a mother was telling her child about the famous Kaifeng dish "Four Treasures in One." A duck is stuffed with a chicken, which is stuffed with a pigeon, and innermost is a quail. Four layers nested together, each layer keeping its complete shape, with tender meat and bones, delicious flavor, and tastes progressing layer by layer. According to the restaurant, this traditional famous dish involves complex procedures and takes a very long time to prepare. Most restaurants no longer make it, and many Kaifeng locals have never seen this dish.
From affordable street snacks to nearly lost craftsmanship, and then to recreated Song imperial banquet dishes, Kaifeng's food has long gone beyond mere eating. Here, the Northern Song dynasty's culinary grandeur of "gathering exotic flavors from across the realm, all in the kitchen" continues. Visitors savor the history of this ancient capital of eight dynasties in every meal and every bite.
The character of a city is hidden in its ever-burning kitchen fires. During the Northern Song dynasty, Kaifeng's dining industry flourished, operating day and night. Restaurants, food shops, night markets, and street vendors wove the commercial fabric of the entire city. Ingredient circulation, restaurant operations, and merchants coming and going from north and south enriched local tax revenue and made Kaifeng a world metropolis in ancient China.
For thousands of years, Kaifeng's culinary heritage has never been interrupted. Small shops, old establishments, and street stalls in the old city's alleys have low barriers to entry and are rooted in communities, absorbing many local workers. Many ordinary people increase their income by making snacks and running restaurants. These small food businesses not only support ordinary people's incomes but also preserve the old city's vitality and popularity.
With the upgrading of cultural tourism consumption, Kaifeng's food is no longer mere sustenance but a major IP for attracting visitors to the city. In the past, tourists visiting ancient capitals mostly looked at historic sites and enjoyed gardens, with short stays and limited consumption scenarios. Now, relying on culinary culture, food extends tourists' stay duration and drives up spending on accommodation, transportation, night tours, specialty products, and other supporting consumption. The continued prosperity of the dining industry continuously strengthens Kaifeng's domestic demand foundation.
During holidays, food always leads consumption first, becoming a bellwether for the urban economy. From street snacks to refined dining experiences, the rich and diverse dining formats satisfy the consumption needs of different groups, making the ancient capital more vibrant.
Licensed Consumer Finance Companies Step Up to Boost Consumption
The revival of everyday street life is inseparable from the continued activation of the consumer market. The reporter found that tourists' high-frequency, small-amount dining expenses are mostly paid by scanning QR codes. For higher-ticket consumption such as specialty private restaurants and cultural tourism packages, interest-free installments, instant discounts, and exclusive coupons have become tourists' choices.
Looking at the entire cultural tourism industry, the role of finance in promoting consumption cannot be overlooked during holidays. Some institutions are accelerating their layout in holiday scenarios, launching interest-free vouchers, installment discounts, and lucky draws, covering cultural tourism, dining, travel, home appliances, and other scenarios, reducing tourists' one-time payment pressure.
Among them, Zhongyuan Consumer Finance, rooted in Henan, launched a "Double Festival Carnival" event where users can participate in lucky draws on the event page, with a maximum prize of a 666-yuan interest-free voucher, plus 7-day and 10-day interest-free vouchers. Zhongyou Consumer Finance launched a "Weekly Lucky Draw" event where invited users can log in to draw loan vouchers, with each user having one draw opportunity per week. Meanwhile, invited users who disburse 10,000 yuan or more can draw WeChat instant discount credits and fuel cards, covering high-frequency consumption scenarios such as travel and transportation. The event has accumulated approximately 100,000 impressions, served about 26,000 users, and distributed about 40,000 benefit packages.
Jianxin Consumer Finance continues its personal consumer loan fiscal interest subsidy service, with the policy implementation period covering all of 2026. Customers can enjoy a 1% annualized interest subsidy. During holidays, residents' consumption demand is released in a concentrated manner, and consultation volumes, application volumes, and transaction volumes for consumer finance services are expected to reach periodic peaks. Jianxin Consumer Finance has applied CCB Group's large language model and multimodal large model capabilities to multiple business process stages, building an intelligent customer service matrix covering voice and text channels, implementing intelligent applications such as smart outbound calls, intelligent Q&A, and intelligent business verification, helping achieve rapid response to customer needs.
During the Double Festival period, Haier Consumer Finance, relying on its Smart Home Installment inclusive financial service system, implemented special consumption promotion activities in multiple regions across the country, covering North China, Central China, Southwest China, East China, and South China. Among them, quality merchants in key cities offered 6-month interest-free installment benefits for all products. As of now, the Smart Home Installment business has achieved full coverage of core domestic consumption regions, allowing more consumers to enjoy installment consumption services nearby and completing the "last mile" of benefiting the people and promoting consumption.
Lou Feipeng, a researcher at Postal Savings Bank of China, told our reporter that licensed consumer finance institutions are a financial force for holiday consumption promotion. On one hand, through tools such as interest-free offers, interest subsidies, and installment discounts, they directly reduce residents' consumption costs, stacking government consumption subsidies, merchant discounts, and financial empowerment to leverage multi-scenario consumption. On the other hand, relying on products such as scenario-based installments and online consumer loans, they accommodate residents' immediate, small-amount, high-frequency holiday consumption needs, helping the consumer market improve quality and expand capacity.
Everyday street life paired with financial support continues to drive consumption upgrading. This thousand-year-old Song city is writing a new cultural tourism story through the flavors on the tip of the tongue.