K’ai-feng's position halfway between the Shantung and the Honan hills also placed it on the natural route between the Hopeh plain and the Yangtze valey. Its nodal situation favoured its choice as the capital of China for about 200 years during the Five Dynasties (A.D. 907-960) and the Northern Sung (960-1126) when it was known as Pien-liang. Later, K’ai-feng was the centre of imperial road systems and on the main highway running from Peking to Hankow and Kuei-lin in the south.
An astronomical clock tower, built atK'ai-fengin the eleventh century under imperial orders, relied on a highly sophisticated combination of water-driven gears (seen at right center in the cutaway diagram above) to rotate an armillary sphere (under the thatched roof) and a celestial globe (located within the tower on the second floor).
The eastern part of the city of K'ai-feng and is adjacent rural area was under the hsien of K'ai-feng; the western part and its adjacent rural area under that of Hsiang-fu (at first called Chün-i).
