Shangqiu travel guide

Shangqiu (Chinese: 商丘), alternately romanized as Shangkiu, is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, and the provinces of Shandong and Anhui to the northeast and southeast respectively.

Shangqiu is an agricultural area that mainly grows wheat, corn, cotton and pears. Shangqiu is also famous for its wine, refrigerators, aluminium and electrical bicycle industry. Though under the administration of Henan Province, Shangqiu shares more cultural similarity with the Huaihai region (淮海地区), a marginal area that includes part of Eastern Henan, southwest Shandong, Northern Jiangsu and Northern Anhui.

Getting in

Shangqiu is one of the large railway hubs in China. The Longhai Railway (Lianyungang - Lanzhou), Jingjiu Railway (Beijing - Kowloon), Xulan High-speed Railway (Xuzhou - Lanzhou) and the under-construction Shanghang High-speed Railway (Shangqiu - Hangzhou) pass Shangqiu. Shangqiu has railway connections to nearly all major cities in China. Shangqiu has two railway stations. When you ride a train, be careful about which station you should go, because the distance between the two stations is 8 km and can take you more than 30 minutes by bus or 15 minutes by taxi from one station to the other.

Getting around

All the long-distance bus stations serve to the counties under the administration of Shangqiu. City bus service is available in Liangyuan and Suiyang districts. Majority of the bus routes pass Shangqiu Railway Station, so it is nearly possible to go to any places with only one transfer there. But miserably, there is a lacking of direct bus routes for the same area in the city. Therefore, even two places are on the same side of the city, you still have to go to downtown to transfer at the railway station. Shangqiu City taxi starts at 5 yuan, including 2 kilometers.

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.