Henan cuisine is mainly represented in Luoyang and Kaifeng. The Gulou Night Market in Kaifeng, which started in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), is crowded with people every evening. Luoyang has a good selection of the varieties of Henan cuisine, and the best way to sample them is by settling in for the night with some friends and the many courses of the water banquet. The Luoyang Water Banquet (Luoyang shuixi) is a local custom that has been running for over a thousand years. There are two reasons why the banquet has this name. The main reason is that, unlike most meal customs in China, the dishes served in this banquet are brought one after another, like flowing water. The second reason is that around one third of the dishes served are soup or semi-soup ones.