Hebei (Chinese 河北, Pinyin Héběi) is a province in the north of
the People's Republic of China. The abbreviation for the provincial
name is jì (冀 'hope'), which is derived from the prefecture and the
ancient state of Ji, in which the province was once located.
Zhili was the old name of Hebei before 1928. During the time of the
Chinese Empire, the province had been directly subordinate to the
imperial court since the Ming Dynasty.
The provincial area includes the two cities
of Beijing and Tianjin, which, as cities directly under the
government, do not belong to Hebei. It has an area of 187,700 km²
and a population of 74.61 million (2020). The name, composed of hé
(河 – “river”) and běi (北 – “north”), means “north of the river” and
refers to its location north of the Yellow River (Huáng Hé).
The province of Hebei borders directly on the capital Beijing and almost completely surrounds it. Other neighbors are Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, the directly governed municipality of Tianjin and the autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.
Shijiazhuang — capital
Baoding — historical capital of Hebei
Chengde — Hebei's most famous landmark, a mountain resort, vast gardens,
and the summer palace of the Qing emperors
Handan — best known for
the ancient city of Guangfu and the Imperial Palace of Nuwa
Qinhuangdao — port city on the eastern side of the Great Wall
Tangshan — a city that produces more steel than the United States
Xingtai — an industrial city with a history dating back 3,500 years to
the Shang Dynasty
Cangzhou — home to the famous 1,000-year-old Iron
Lion statue
Zhangjiakou — ski resorts, hot springs, and wine region
of the Huailai Valley
The Great Wall of China
Shanhaiguan — the dragon's head, the wall
juts out into the sea. Located in Qinhuangdao City, it takes about 3
hours by train from Beijing. Panyakou Reservoir - Sunken Section of the
Great Wall of China
Huangyaguan Section - Well-preserved towers,
intricate passages and colorful decorations are worth visiting
Putuo Zongcheng Temple is a Buddhist religious complex situated in a Hebei Province in China. Its construction began during Qing Dynasty.
The province of Hebei is located on China's northern coast on the
Gulf of Bohai. The province's territory includes the directly governed
cities of Beijing and Tianjin. In the northeast, Hebei borders on the
province of Liaoning, in the north on Inner Mongolia, in the west on
Shanxi, in the south on Henan and in the southeast on Shandong.
The topography is predominantly flat and the altitude above sea level
falls from northwest to southeast. Mountains make up about 35% of the
area, plateaus about 12% and the lowlands, hills and basins together
about 50%. The Yan Mountains (Yanshan) stretch along the northern
border, with peaks reaching over 1000 meters in height. Here, at the
eastern end of the Great Wall, is the Shanhaiguan, or Shanhai Pass, a
crossing of the Great Wall that was historically of particular strategic
importance and was considered the "first pass under heaven" (天下第一关). In
the northwest lies the Zhangbei Plateau, which is part of the Inner
Mongolia Plateau and consists mainly of extensive pastureland. The
Taihangshan (Taihang Mountains) runs along the western border with the
neighboring province of Shanxi. On its northern edge is Mount Xiaowutai
(小五台山, Xiǎowǔtái Shān), which is the highest peak in the province at
2882 meters. The center of the province and the coastal region are
occupied by an extensive flat plain, the height of which generally
barely reaches 50 meters above sea level. It forms part of the North
China Plain or its northern part, the Haihe Plain, and is the province's
main growing area for grain and cotton. The largest river in the
province is the Haihe, whose catchment area covers about two thirds of
Hebei.
The climate of Hebei is temperate continental and
influenced by the monsoon, but otherwise roughly comparable to the
climate of Germany. Winter is cold with little snow, spring is windy and
dry, and summer is warm and rainy. Autumn is considered the most
pleasant season with plenty of sunshine and pleasant temperatures. The
annual average temperature varies between about 0 °C in the northern
mountains and 13 °C in the south. Depending on the altitude and north or
south location, there are between 110 and 220 frost-free days a year.
Annual precipitation is 400 to 800 mm and decreases from south to north.
Precipitation is concentrated in the summer months and often occurs in
the form of cloudbursts. The Zhangbei Plateau has a drier climate with
annual precipitation of less than 400 mm.
The plains of Hebei were home to Peking Man, a subspecies of Homo
erectus, 450,000 years ago. Very old archaeological traces of previously
organized human communities can be found in the Hebei area.
Archaeological evidence of millet cultivation (fossil millet and
sorghum) was discovered at the Nanzhuangtou site in 1986, and was
estimated to be around 10,000 to 10,500 years old. The site of Cishan
(city of Wu'an) gave its name to the Neolithic culture of the same name,
which dates back to between 5400 and 5100 BC. Hebei, together with the
present-day provinces of Henan, Shanxi, Shandong and Jiangxi, was a
center of the ancient Chinese Shang Dynasty (around 1750–1100 BC).
During the Warring States Period (475 to 221 BC), the north of Hebei
belonged to the state of Yan and the south to the states of Zhongshan,
Zhao and Wei. This gave rise to the alternative name Yanzhao (燕趙 / 燕赵,
yànzhào) for Hebei. During the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), there was
a district of Ji (冀州, jìzhōu) in southern Hebei, from which the later
abbreviation (冀, Jì) for Hebei is derived. During the Tang Dynasty, the
administrative border was drawn along the Yellow River, which is the
origin of the provincial name "Hebei" (河北 - "north of the river"). At
that time, the region had great military strategic importance as an
outpost against the Khitan barbarians in the north. The number of
soldiers stationed in Hebei for this purpose was estimated at around
300,000 during the Song Dynasty (960–1279). In 960, the Mongolian Yuan
Dynasty placed Hebei directly under the control of the capital Dadu (now
Beijing) and the province was given the name Beizhili (北直隸 / 北直隶,
Bĕizhílì – “northern directly subordinate area, North Zhili”). During
the late Ming Dynasty, the scholar Xu Guangqi made a name for himself by
promoting wet rice cultivation in Hebei. The improved nutritional
situation made the subsequent population expansion during the Qing
period possible. The province of the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), which was
now simply called Zhili (直隸), was ruled by a viceroy (直隸總督, Zhílì
zŏngdū), who had his seat in the city of Baoding from 1730.
After
the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Zhili was the home province of various
generals of the Beiyang government. In the course of China's
consolidation under the Kuomintang in 1928, the province received its
current name. After the occupation of Manchuria in 1931 and the
establishment of Manchukuo in 1932, Hebei became a buffer zone between
the Republic of China and the neighboring northern provinces of Rehe and
Chahar occupied by Japan. In 1935, the Japanese occupying forces set up
an Autonomous Military Council of Eastern Hebei in Tongzhou, made up of
collaborating Chinese warlords. After the Tongzhou Incident in 1937,
Japanese troops occupied Hebei and Beijing completely until 1945.
As part of the administrative reorganization after the founding of
the People's Republic of China in 1949, Hebei was gradually enlarged
through the annexation of territories. In 1952, areas of the dissolved
Chahar province were added in the north. In 1956, when the Rehe province
was dissolved, Hebei was enlarged to include the city of Chengde and
eight other counties. Hebei also gained additional territories,
including the city of Shanhaiguan. In 1958, Tianjin was also
incorporated into the province and the provincial administration was
moved there. In 1966, Tianjin became a city directly under the
government and the provincial administration of Hebei was again based in
Baoding. In 1968, the provincial capital was moved from Baoding to
Zhangjiakou.
On July 28, 1976, the city of Tangshan was struck by
a powerful earthquake, followed by a series of smaller quakes throughout
the decade. According to official figures, a total of over 240,000
people were killed (see 1976 Tangshan earthquake).
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Hebei Province include the Shanhaiguan
section of the Great Wall, the Mountain Summer Retreat, the Eastern
Tombs of the Qing Emperors, the Western Tombs of the Qing Emperors, and
the Grand Canal.
Hebei Province is home to many Buddhist and
Taoist temples, which are also the province's most prominent cultural
heritage.
The leading research institutions of Hebei Province are Yanshan University (Qinhuangdao), Hebei Medical University (Shijiazhuang), China People's Police University (Langfang), North China University of Science and Technology (Tangshan).
Hebei is the most polluted province in the country. According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, in the first half of 2018, five of the 10 most polluted cities in the country were in Hebei, including the administrative center - Shijiazhuang. The difficult environmental situation is associated with the activities of Hebei metallurgical plants, clouds of smog from which reach even Beijing.
Hebei is made up of eleven prefecture-level cities. The prefecture-level cities in turn consist of 49 urban districts, 21 county-level cities, 91 counties, 6 autonomous counties (three for the Manchu, two for the Hui and one for Mongols and Manchu) (as of 2020). In total, there were 167 administrative units at the county level in 2020. At the municipal level, there were 2,253 administrative units in the same year: 310 street districts, 1,230 large towns, 671 towns and 42 ethnic communities.
Of the 66,684,419 inhabitants of Hebei Province determined in the
2000 census, 95.65% were Han Chinese. The Manchus came in second place
with 3.18% of the population, and the Muslim Hui came in third place
with over 0.8%. The four autonomous counties established for the Manchu
minority (Fengning, Kuancheng, Qinglong, Weichang) - three of them in
the administrative unit Chengde (Qinglong belongs to Qinhuangdao) - make
up 12.3% of the provincial area, compared to the two autonomous counties
established for the Hui, Dachang (Langfang) and Mengcun (Cangzhou),
which only cover 0.3% of the area.
Also worth mentioning are the
Mongolians, who live mainly in the north of Hebei and make up over 0.25%
of the population. They share the Weichang autonomous county (4.8% of
the provincial area) with the Manchus. Of the 56 officially recognized
nationalities in China, only one is not represented among the
inhabitants of Hebei.
In 2020, Hebei Province's gross regional product grew by 3.9% to 3.62 trillion yuan (about 561 billion US dollars). Foreign trade grew by 10.2% to 441.04 billion yuan; exports grew by 6.4% to 252.19 billion yuan, and imports grew by 15.8% to 188.85 billion yuan.
Frequent summer droughts are a constraint on Hebei's agricultural development.
Hebei Province is China's largest steel and iron producer; it is home to state-owned HBIS Group, one of the country's largest steel companies.
In the first 11 months of 2021, Hebei Province's foreign trade
turnover increased by 22.4% year-on-year to 488 billion yuan (about 76.6
billion U.S. dollars). Exports totaled 270.8 billion yuan, up 20.6%
year-on-year, while imports totaled 217.3 billion yuan, up 24.6%. The
province's main exports include mechanical, electrical, steel, auto
parts, automobiles, and electronic components; its main imports include
agricultural products (including soybeans), iron ore, and energy
products (including natural gas and crude oil).
In 2022, Hebei
Province's foreign trade volume was 562.9 billion yuan (US$82.61
billion), up 3.9% year-on-year. The province's exports were 340.74
billion yuan, up 12.5% year-on-year, while its imports were 222.16
billion yuan, down 7%. Trade with ASEAN increased 32.2% year-on-year to
76.67 billion yuan, making ASEAN Hebei's largest trading partner.
Electromechanical exports increased 19.8% to 130 billion yuan,
accounting for 38.2% of the province's total exports. In 2023, Hebei
Province's total foreign trade turnover reached 581.84 billion yuan
(US$81.89 billion), up 7.4% year on year. The foreign trade volume of
Hebei's private enterprises increased by 4.7% to 370.86 billion yuan,
accounting for 63.7% of the province's total foreign trade turnover. The
export value of electromechanical products was 162.73 billion yuan, up
33.1%.
Like most provinces in China, Hebei Province sets different minimum wage levels based on the province's development level, its districts, and the cost of living. There are four levels of minimum wage in Hebei Province. Since November 1, 2019, the minimum wage in Hebei Province is as follows by region: A - 1900 yuan ($268.43) and 19 yuan ($2.68) per hour, B - 1790 yuan ($252.90) and 18 yuan ($2.54) per hour, C - 1680 yuan ($237.36) and 17 yuan ($2.40) per hour, D - 1580 yuan ($223.23) and 16 yuan ($2.26) per hour.
Hebei has the densest network of national highways and railway lines. Shijiazhuang and Shanhaiguan are the two most important railway hubs in the province. Qinhuangdao is one of the most important ports in northern China, while Shijiazhuang is the air traffic center.
The end of the Great Wall is in Shanhaiguan, near Qinhuangdao. It
runs through the northern part of the province. Shanhaiguan is the most
important pass in the east of the Great Wall. On the roof ledge of the
east gate hangs a wooden plaque with the inscription: "First test (gate,
pass) on earth" (天下第一关, Tiānxià Dìyī Guān). It was made in 1472 by a
graduate of the imperial examinations.
The city of Chengde and
its temples are a United Nations World Heritage Site. Chengde, formerly
known as Jehol (also Rehe = hot river), is located 250 kilometers
northeast of Beijing. During the Qing Dynasty, the emperor's summer
palace was located here, where he and his court resided from May to
October. The building complex covers 5.6 square kilometers and includes
nine courtyards, eleven Lamaist temples, gardens and pavilions. The
temples are replicas of famous temples from all over China, e.g. from
Tibet.