Hebei

Hebei 河北
Province
Province of Hebei
Name transcription(s)
•  Chinese	河北省 (Héběi Shěng)
•  Abbreviation	HE / HEB / 冀 (pinyin: Jì)
Clockwise: Great Wall at Jinshanling, Chengde Mountain Resort, Puning Temple, Fuqing Temple at Cangyan Mountain, Beidaihe in Qinhuangdao
Map showing the location of Hebei Province
Coordinates: 39°18′N 116°42′E
Country	China
Named for	河 hé—"(Yellow) River" 北 běi—"north" "north of the Yellow River"
Capital (and largest city)	Shijiazhuang Baoding (1729–1913, 1935–1937, 1946–1947, 1949–1958, 1966–1968) Beijing (1928–1930, 1945–1946, 1947–1949) Tianjin (1870–1902, 1913–1928, 1930–1935, 1958–1966) Shijiazhuang (1968–present)
Divisions	11 prefectures, 121 counties, 2207 townships
Government
• Type	Province
• Body	Hebei Provincial People's Congress
• CCP Secretary	Ni Yuefeng
• Congress chairman	Ni Yuefeng
• Governor	Wang Zhengpu
• CPPCC chairman	Lian Yimin
Area
• Total	188,800 km2 (72,900 sq mi)
• Rank	12th
Highest elevation (Mt. Xiaowutai)	2,882 m (9,455 ft)
Population  (2020)
• Total	74,610,235
• Rank	6th
• Density	400/km2 (1,000/sq mi)
• Rank	11th
Demographics
• Ethnic composition	Han: 96% Manchu: 3% Hui: 0.8% Mongol: 0.3%
• Languages and dialects	Jilu Mandarin, Beijing Mandarin, Jin
ISO 3166 code	CN-HE
GDP (2021)	CN¥4.039 trillion US$635 billion (12th)
- per capita	CN¥54,172 US$8,397 (25th)
• growth	6.5%
HDI (2019)	0.738 high · 20th
Website	hebei.gov.cn

Hebei
"Hebei" in Chinese characters
Chinese	河北
Postal	Hopeh
Literal meaning	"North of the (Yellow) River"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Héběi Bopomofo ㄏㄜˊ   ㄅㄟˇ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Herbeei Wade–Giles Ho2-pei3 IPA [xɤ̌.pèɪ] other Mandarin Xiao'erjing حَ‌بُوِ شْ Wu Romanization Ghu平poh入 Hakka Romanization Hò-pet Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Hòh-bāk Jyutping Ho4-bak1 IPA [hɔː˩.pɐk̚˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ Hô-pak
Abbreviation
Chinese	冀
Literal meaning	[an ancient province in modern southern Hebei]
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Jì Bopomofo ㄐㄧˋ Gwoyeu Romatzyh Jih Wade–Giles Chi4 IPA [tɕî] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Kei3 Southern Min Tâi-lô Kī
Zhili Province
Traditional Chinese	直隸省
Simplified Chinese	直隶省
Literal meaning	"Directly ruled"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhílì Shěng

Hebei (UK: or , UK: , Chinese: ; 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.

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

Hebei Province received its name from its location in the North China Plain, north of the Yellow River. Hebei means "north of the river". 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. 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)". When Nanjing became the capital of the Republic of China in 1928, the Zhili province was abolished and given its present name, Hebei.

History

Pre and early history

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.

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. 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

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

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.

Tang and Five dynasties

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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. 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.

Geography

Hebei is the only province in China to contain plateaus, mountains, hills, shorelines, plains, and lakes. 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).

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.

Government

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).

Administrative divisions

Hebei has eleven prefecture-level divisions. All are prefecture-level cities:

Administrative divisions of Hebei
Shijiazhuang Tangshan Qinhuangdao Handan Xingtai Baoding Zhangjiakou Chengde Cangzhou Langfang ↗ Hengshui Beijing Tianjin
Division code	Division	Area in km2	Population 2010	Seat	Divisions
					Districts	Counties	Aut. counties	CL cities
130000	Hebei Province	18,770	71,854,202	Shijiazhuang city	49	91	6	21
130100	Shijiazhuang city	15,848	9,547,869	Chang'an District	8	11		3
130200	Tangshan city	14,334.59	7,577,284	Lunan District	7	4		3
130300	Qinhuangdao city	7791.57	2,987,605	Haigang District	4	2	1
130400	Handan city	12,066	9,174,679	Congtai District	6	11		1
130500	Xingtai city	12,433	7,104,114	Xindu District	4	12		2
130600	Baoding city	22,185	10,029,197	Jingxiu District	5	15		4
130700	Zhangjiakou city	36,861.55	4,345,491	Qiaoxi District	6	10
130800	Chengde city	39512.98	3,473,197	Shuangqiao District	3	4	3	1
130900	Cangzhou city	14,305.28	7,134,053	Yunhe District	2	9	1	4
131000	Langfang city	6,417.29	4,358,839	Anci District	2	5	1	2
131100	Hengshui city	8,836.90	4,340,773	Taocheng District	2	8		1

These eleven prefecture-level divisions are subdivided into 168 county-level divisions (47 districts, 21 county-level cities, 94 counties and 6 autonomous counties). Those are, in turn, divided into 2207 township-level divisions (1 district public office, 937 towns, 979 townships, 55 ethnic townships, and 235 subdistricts). At the end of 2017, the total population of Hebei was 75.2 million.

Urban areas