Remnants of Yangshao, Longshan and Erlitou; these three oldest cultures of China were found in northern Henan.
The capital of the first dynasty, Shang (16th - 11th century BC), was Anyang. Later on in history, Luoyang and Kaifeng also acted as capitals many times. In 1954 Zhengzhou became the provincial capital instead of Kaifeng.
During the Wei Dynasty (386-534) the Shaolin temple was built to host the Indian monk named Bada. This temple has been the main attraction in Henan. Nontheless, Dengfeng is a pelgrimage for gongfu practitioners who are seeking hardcore and traditional training in martial arts.
The period of 1959-1962 is known as the 'Three Bitter Years'. Because of many natural disasters and several mistakes during the 'Great Leap Forward'. Millions of people died of famine.
In 1975 the Banqiao Dam collapsed because of Typhoon Nina. The dam could not handle all the water and due to the lack of fluent communication, little could be done to prevent the dam from collapsing. Around 230,000 people were killed.
Nowadays, aids has become a big problem in Henan. Many people are infected, because of unfiltered blood transfusion and unsafe sex.

(D.De Hon)

Capital city: Zhengzhou
Area: 167,000 km²
Adjacent provinces: Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Anhui and Hubei.
Nationalities: Han (98.8%), Hui, Mongolian, Manchu, Miao, Tibetan, Uygur, Yi, Korean, Tujia, Bai, ... . In total 51 ethnic groups live in Henan.

Henan is divided into 17 prefectures and 1 county-level city.

Anyang:
Hebi:
Jiaozuo:
Jiyuan County:
Kaifeng:
Luohe:
Luoyang: Luoyang City, Dengfeng
Nanyang:
Pingdingshan:
Puyang:
Sanmenxia:
Shangqiu:
Xinxiang:
Xinyang:
Xuchang:
Zhengzhou: Zhengzhou City
Zhoukou:
Zhumadian: