Hebei UK: /ˌhɜːˈbeɪ/[5] or /həˈbeɪ/,[6] UK: /ˈhʌˈbeɪ/[7] (Chinese: 河北 i; lit.

'River North'; alternately Hopeh)

is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million
people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui,
and 0.3% Mongol. Three Mandarin dialects are spoken: Jilu Mandarin, Beijing Mandarin and Jin.
Hebei borders the provinces of Shanxi to the west, Henan to the south, Shandong to the
southeast, Liaoning to the northeast, and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to the north. Hebei
province additionally borders the direct-administered municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, whose
territory it (together with the Bohai Sea) it entirely encloses. Its economy is based on agriculture and
manufacturing. The province is China's premier steel producer, although the steel industry creates
serious air pollution.[8][9][10]
Five UNESCO World Heritage Sites can be found in the province, the: Great Wall of
China, Chengde Mountain Resort, Grand Canal, Eastern Qing tombs, and Western Qing tombs. It is
also home to five National Famous Historical and Cultural
Cities: Handan, Baoding, Chengde, Zhengding and Shanhaiguan.
Historically, during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, the region was
ruled by the Chinese Yan and Zhao states. During the Yuan dynasty, the region was called
the Zhongshu Province. It was called North Zhili during the Ming dynasty, and Zhili Province during
the Qing dynasty. The modern-day province of Hebei was created in 1928.

Etymology[edit]
Hebei Province received its name from its location in the North China Plain, north of the Yellow
River.[11][12] Hebei means "north of the river".[13][14] Since the province is recorded in Yu Gong as Ji
Province, or Jizhou, it is abbreviated as Ji (Chinese: 冀).
The province's nickname is Yanzhao (Chinese: 燕赵), which is the collective name of
the Yan and Zhao states that controlled the region during the Spring and Autumn period and
the Warring States period.[15] In 1421, the Yongle Emperor moved the capital
from Nanjing to Beijing and the province started to be called North Zhili (Chinese: 北直隶)
or Zhili (Chinese: 直隶), which means "Directly Ruled (by the Imperial Court)".[16][17] When Nanjing
became the capital of the Republic of China in 1928, the Zhili province was abolished and given its
present name, Hebei.[18]

History[edit]
Pre and early history[edit]
Peking man, an early pre-historic Homo erectus, lived on the plains of Hebei around 200,000 to
700,000 years ago. Neolithic findings at the prehistoric Beifudi site date to 7000 and 8000 BC.[19]
Many early Chinese myths are set in the province. Fuxi, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five
Emperors, is said to have lived in present-day Xingtai.[20] The mythical Battle of Zhuolu, won by
the Yellow Emperor, Yan Emperor, and their Yanhuang tribes against the Chiyou-led Jiuli tribes,
took place in Zhangjiakou and started the Huaxia civilization.
During the Spring and Autumn period (722 BC–476 BC), Hebei was under the rule of Yan in the
north and Jin in the south. Also during this period, a nomadic people known as Dí invaded the plains
of northern China and established Zhongshan in central Hebei. In the Warring States period (403
BC–221 BC), Jin was partitioned and much of its territory in Hebei went to Zhao.

Qin and Han dynasties[edit]

The Qin dynasty unified China in 221 BC. The Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) ruled the area under
two provinces, You Prefecture in the north and Ji Province in the south. At the end of the Han
dynasty, most of Hebei was under the control of warlords Gongsun Zan in the north and Yuan
Shao further south. Yuan Shao emerged as the victor of the two, but he was defeated by Cao Cao in
the Battle of Guandu in 200. Hebei came under the rule of the Kingdom of Wei, established by the
descendants of Cao Cao.

Jin through the Three Kingdoms[edit]

After the invasions of northern nomadic peoples at the end of the Western Jin dynasty, chaos
ensued in the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties. Because of its location
on the northern frontier, Hebei changed hands many times and was controlled at various times
by Later Zhao, Former Yan, Former Qin, and Later Yan. The Northern Wei reunified northern China
in 440 but split in 534, with Hebei coming under Eastern Wei; then the Northern Qi, with its capital at
Ye near modern Linzhang, Hebei. The Sui dynasty again unified China in 589.

Tricolor Duck-Shaped Cup, Tang dynasty, unearthed from Anxin

County
Tang and Five dynasties[edit]
During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the area was officially called Hebei for the first time. The Great
Yan State was established in Hebei from 756 to 763 during the An Lushan Rebellion. After the
rebellion, Lulong Jiedushi retained its autonomy from Tang during most of the 9th century. During
the late Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Lulong was fragmented among several regimes
including the short-lived Yan. It was eventually annexed in 913 by Li Cunxu, who established
the Later Tang (923–936). Emperor Gaozu of the Later Jin dynasty ceded much of northern Hebei to
the Khitan Liao dynasty. This territory, called the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, became a
weakness in the Chinese defense against the Khitans for the next century because it lay within
the Great Wall.

Song through Yuan dynasties[edit]

During the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an
area of contention between Song China and the Liao dynasty. Later, the Southern Song
dynasty abandoned all of North China, including Hebei, to the Jurchen Jin dynasty after the
1127 Jingkang Incident of the Jin–Song wars. Hebei was heavily affected by the flooding of the
Yellow River; between 1048 and 1128, the river ran directly through the province rather than to its
south.[21]
The Mongol Yuan dynasty divided China into provinces but did not establish Hebei as a province.
Instead, the area was directly administrated by the Secretariat at the capital Dadu.

Ming and Qing dynasties[edit]

The Ming dynasty ruled Hebei as Beizhili, meaning Northern Directly Ruled because the area
contained and was directly ruled by the imperial capital in Beijing. The "Northern" designation was
used because there was a southern counterpart covering present-day Jiangsu and Anhui. When
the Manchu Qing dynasty came to power in 1644, they abolished the southern counterpart, and
Hebei became known as Zhili or Directly Ruled. During the Qing dynasty, the northern borders of
Zhili extended deep into Inner Mongolia and overlapped in jurisdiction with the leagues of Inner
Mongolia.

Republic of China[edit]

Hebei in 2022
The Qing dynasty collapsed in 1912 and was replaced by the Republic of China. In a few years,
China descended into a civil war, with regional warlords vying for power. Since Zhili was so close to
the capital of Peking (Beijing), it was the site of the Zhiwan War, the First Zhifeng War, and
the Second Zhifeng War. With the success of the Northern Expedition in 1926 and 1927 by
the Kuomintang, the capital was moved from Peking to Nanking (Nanjing). As a result, the
provence's name was changed to Hebei, reflecting the relocation of the capital and its standard
provincial administration.
During the World War II, Hebei was under the control of the Reorganized National Government of
the Republic of China, a puppet state of Imperial Japan.

People's Republic of China[edit]

The founding of the People's Republic of China saw several changes. The region around Chengde,
previously part of Rehe Province (historically part of Manchuria), and the region around Zhangjiakou,
previously part of Chahar Province (historically part of Inner Mongolia), were merged into Hebei.
This extended its borders northwards beyond the Great Wall. Meanwhile, the city of Puyang was
carved away, causing Hebei to lose access to the Yellow River. The city became part of the short-
lived Pingyuan Province before eventually being annexed into Henan.[22]
The capital was also moved from Baoding to the new city of Shijiazhuang, and, for a short period,
to Tianjin. On July 28, 1976, Tangshan was struck by the Tangshan earthquake, the deadliest
earthquake of the 20th century, killing over 240,000 people. There were a series of smaller
earthquakes in the following decade.
Today, Hebei, along with Beijing and Tianjin municipalities which it includes, make up the Jing-Jin-
Ji megalopolis region. With a population of 130 million, it is about six times the size of the New York
metropolitan area and is one of the largest megalopolis clusters in China.[23] Beijing had also
unloaded some of its non-capital functions to the province with the establishment of
the Xiong'an New Area, which integrates the three municipalities.[24]
 Langyashan (Wolf Tooth Mountain), in Yi County

Bashang Meadows in Fengning County

Geography[edit]
Hebei is the only province in China to contain plateaus, mountains, hills, shorelines, plains, and
lakes.[25] Most of central and southern Hebei lies within the North China Plain. Western Hebei rises
into the Taihang Mountains (Taihang Shan), while the Yan Mountains (Yan Shan) runs through
northern Hebei. Beyond the mountains are the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The highest peak
is Mount Xiaowutai in Yu County in the northwest of the province, with an altitude of 2,882 m
(9,455 ft).[1]
Hebei borders the Bohai Sea on the east. The Hai River watershed covers most of the province's
central and southern parts; the Luan River watershed covers the northeast. Excluding manmade
reservoirs, the largest lake in Hebei is Baiyangdian, located in Anxin County, Baoding.
Major cities in Hebei include: Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao, Handan, and
Zhangjiakou.
Hebei has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate. Its winters are cold and dry, while its
summers are hot and humid. Temperatures average −16 to −3 °C (3 to 27 °F) in January and 20 to
27 °C (68 to 81 °F) in July. The annual precipitation ranges from 400 to 800 mm (16 to 31 in),
concentrated heavily in summer.

Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for

selected locations in Hebei Province, China[26][27][28][29]

July July Januar Januar

City
(°C) (°F) y (°C) y (°F)

31.7/22. 89.1/72.
Baoding 2.5/–7.7 36.5/18.1
6 7
 Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for
selected locations in Hebei Province, China[26][27][28][29]

July July Januar Januar

City
(°C) (°F) y (°C) y (°F)

Qinhuangda 28.1/21. 82.6/71.

0.1/–8.8 32.2/16.2
o 7 1

30.2/21. 86.4/71.
Tangshan 0.9/–10.2 33.6/13.6
7 1

29.4/18. 84.9/65.
Zhangjiakou 2.2/–12.9 36.0/8.8
7 7

Government[edit]
Main articles: Politics of Hebei and List of provincial leaders of the People's Republic of China
The politics of Hebei is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing
institutions in mainland China. The Governor of Hebei is the highest-ranking official in the People's
Government of Hebei. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the
governor has less power than the Hebei Chinese Communist Party Provincial Committee Secretary
(CCP Party Chief).