A small Jewish community in Kaifeng, Henan province, believes its ancestors where Persian Jews who came for trade by the Silk Road, about a thousand years ago during the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1127). Kaifeng, where the Jews built a synagogue in 1163, was then the capital of the dynasty. It was a cosmopolitan city on a branch of the Silk Road. The existence of Jews in China was unknown to Europeans until 1605, when Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit then established in Beijing, was visited by a Jew from Kaifeng, who had come to Beijing to take examinations for a bureaucratic degree.
After a while, the community started marrying into the local population, and today the Jews are Hans, both physically and culturally.
Years ago, the local authorities collaborated with the community, in the hope of attracting tourists. Today, the community of about 300 is closely watched by the Chinese authorities which does not allow them to practice their faith since Judaism is not one of the religions recognized by the central state.

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