ABSTRACT
The earliest Jews arrived in China via two major routes. Some, primarily from Persia, entered China overland as merchants along the Silk Road trade route, which connected the Middle East with India and China. There is evidence of such Jewish traders in the far western part of what is now China as early as the late 8th century CE. Kaifeng was the capital of China during most of the years 913-1127 and was at that time one of the largest cities in the world. It was also during this period that Jewish traders first settled in the city. In 1704, there are believed to have been around a thousand Jews living in Kaifeng, but by 1850 this number had decreased to only a few hundred, in part due to another terrible flood that took place in 1841. By the early 20th century, the remaining Jews of Kaifeng had acculturated into the surrounding Chinese society and stopped practising Judaism.
