Zhengzhou is a culturally rich location in China, with sites linked to the origins of martial arts and Buddhism

Located as it is in the cradle of Chinese civilisation, Zhengzhou has a lot to offer to visitors culturally. The city was built on the first foundation of the Chinese people, the Shang and Xia dynasties, and served as a capital and hub for later imperial dynasties that spread out across Asia and developed incredible cultural and artistic works.

One of the biggest events in Zhengzhou is the annual Ancestor Worship Ceremony in the Yellow Emperor's native place of Xinzheng town, just outside the city. This year's event will take place on April 9, which corresponds to a traditional date on the Chinese lunar calendar, and is expected to attract more than 20,000 people.

Henan is known not just as the birthplace of Chinese culture, but also as the birthplace for many different kung fu schools and styles. The Shaolin Temple is the most well-known example of Henan's martial arts culture, but there are many others.

To commemorate this heritage, Zhengzhou has presented a Martial Arts Cultural Festival for many years. The annual festival is held in the city and at the feet of Song Mountain, in the town of Dengfeng. The festival brings together martial artists from all over Henan province and the mainland to perform, exchange knowledge and ideas, and promote the heritage and values of kung fu.

Another powerful and influential aspect of Zhengzhou's culture is the Buddhist heritage that originated in the 7th century BC and has continued unbroken to the present day. Song Mountain is central to the region's Buddhist culture, due to the Shaolin Temple as well as the many caves, grottoes and satellite temples that rose around the mountain's base. A short trip to Luoyang provides an even closer look into the Buddhist heritage of the region - there, the Longmont Grottoes dazzle visitors with their beauty and deep spirituality. Taoism existed here in the cradle of Chinese civilisation long before Buddhism appeared, and that heritage is still apparent in the Songshan Academy - where Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian values merged to enrich the lives of imperial Chinese scholars - and also in the satellite temples along the slopes of Song Mountain and around Chenjiagou.

Taoist and Buddhist temples merged during the centuries that followed the arrival of Buddhism, and this helped to create a belief system and way of life that has persisted through multiple empires, political changes and explosive economic growth.