Zhengzhou Shang City

The Zhengzhou Shang City is a Bronze Age archaeological site of the Erligang culture in Zhengzhou, Henan. It was probably a capital of the Shang Dynasty, dating from around 1630 to 1400 BC. The site includes the remains of a rectangular inner city with massive walls, a palace area in the northeast, and outer-city workshops for bone, pottery, and bronze vessels.

Don't miss

• The inner city walls, originally about 20 meters wide at the base and 8 meters high, with a perimeter of roughly 6,960 meters
• The palace area in the northeast, built with hangtu (rammed earth) and including stone water storage facilities
• Outer-city workshops for bone, pottery, and bronze vessels, showing industrial activity
• The Erligang area outside the walls, which is the type site of the Erligang culture

Tickets & tours

Ways to visit Zhengzhou Shang City

Cheapest way inZhengzhou Private Day Tour to Shaolin Temple and Longmen Grottoes5★ · 11 travelers8-10 hoursFree cancellationFrom$175 per personSee dates →

Getting there

Know before you go

• The site is an archaeological area, not a reconstructed city; most of the ancient city lies beneath modern Zhengzhou.
• It is one of the oldest archaeological sites in China and a state-level key cultural heritage site.

A bit of history

Archaeologist Han Weizhou discovered the site in 1950. In 1951, a group from the Institute of Archaeology confirmed it was older than the Shang city of Yinxu. Large-scale excavations began in 1954, and the city walls were identified as Shang in 1955. Work stopped during the Cultural Revolution but resumed in 1971, when the palace area was found. Excavations remain difficult because the modern city covers most of the ancient area.