Shangqiu Ancient City | The Perspective of a Bystander

I spent my Sunday afternoon wandering around Shangqiu Ancient City, not returning until evening. I aim to write an objective travelogue, neither embellishing nor demeaning the experience. "The Shangqiu Ancient City, with its investment of tens of billions, has gradually unveiled itself in recent years. There are many residential developments around the ancient city, and the whole area has started to come to life. The surroundings of the ancient city are still dominated by lakes and green spaces, promoting a suburban getaway. Entering the outer ring of the ancient city, the main attractions are a few imitation ancient buildings. Currently, the Temple of the Matchmaker God and a temple are open to visitors. The Temple of the Matchmaker God is indeed quite popular, with thousands of visitors, but the experience is not great. The main issue is the poor sound system, which makes it hard to hear, and the host's ability to control the crowd is mediocre. After all, a matchmaker like Wang Po is one in a million, and Shangqiu is still in its initial and imitative stages. Although it's not great, it still managed to match three couples in one afternoon. People come for the excitement, after all, there's no admission fee, so what more could you want? Further inside the ancient city are some imitation ancient buildings and renovated old houses, mainly consisting of large courtyards, such as: Fan Wenzheng's Academy, the City God Temple, the Confucian Temple, the Guidu Government Office, and the Mu Family Courtyard. It's clear that Shangqiu Ancient City has big ambitions, truly aiming to recreate another ancient city, but none are open yet. The night view and ancient buildings are quite beautiful, with no performances, just pure strolling. There's a long street full of snacks and entertainment, with Zhongshan Street North being more lively, attracting more people, while South Street is less successful. I analyzed it, and the main reason is that North Street consists of restored buildings that already had residential households, while South Street has newly constructed buildings that are re-attracting businesses. It seems that North Street is mostly local vendors, most of whom were also doing business nearby before, and have now concentrated on North Street, resulting in significantly less foot traffic on South Street. The main offerings are various snacks, similar to the old pedestrian street of Shangqiu, and there are also Hanfu stores, game arcades, shooting ranges, clothing stores, shoe stores, etc. The overall experience is average. I tried the most queued 'Dashou Zhangji Rolled Noodles' and one of the top ten ancient city snacks 'Hongmei Baiji Mo', with Baiji Mo costing eight yuan and a small serving of rolled noodles also at eight yuan. The overall taste is not bad, but not particularly delicious either, basically on par with the standard of old shops in a hometown small town. In summary, Shangqiu Ancient City has too much ambition, trying to recreate another unprofitable ancient city. The difficulty lies in its operation, unlike the Kaifeng model, which relies on various charged performances and interactive parks to stay afloat, such as Qingming Riverside Landscape Garden and Millennium City Park. Because they offer performances and interactions, they can become popular beyond their local area. This type of purely scenic ancient city is basically just a suburban day trip enjoyed by locals.