Chengde 承德市

Setting and landscape

The north of the prefecture is the southeastern edge of the Inner Mongolian Plateau, the middle is low mountain country and the south belongs to the Yan Mountains (燕山). Most land lies between 200 and 1,200 metres, and the city gives Wuling Mountain (雾灵山), at 2,118 metres, as its highest peak. The hills around the city are Danxia landforms, shaped into rock features such as Qingchui Peak (磬锤峰) and Shuangta Mountain (双塔山). The climate is continental monsoon, with four distinct seasons, rain arriving in the warm months and wide swings between day and night.

History

Until the early Qing the site was a hamlet called Rehe Shangying (热河上营). A travelling palace went up in 1703, and in 1733 the Yongzheng Emperor (雍正) created Chengde Department, choosing a name that means receiving the virtue of the ancestors. Qing emperors came to spend almost half of each year here, receiving ethnic-minority princes and foreign envoys; the city government recalls the visits of the Sixth Panchen Lama (六世班禅) and the British envoy Macartney. Chengde became capital of Rehe Province (热河省) under the Republic and passed to Hebei when that province was abolished in 1955. The Hebei government notes that it was a collection point for the standard pronunciation of Mandarin.

Manchu paper-cutting from Fengning (丰宁满族剪纸), begun in the Kangxi reign and cut mainly in positive line with long, fine fringes, joined the national intangible-heritage list in 2006.

What to see

The Mountain Resort and its outlying temples (避暑山庄及周围寺庙) were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994 and rated a national 5A scenic area in 2007. The city government describes the temples as the largest surviving group of imperial temples in China; at Puning Temple (普宁寺) a gilded wooden Thousand-Armed Guanyin stands 27.21 metres high. The Jinshanling Great Wall (金山岭长城) became a 5A scenic area in 2020.

Getting oriented

Chengde lies 225 kilometres from Beijing and 435 from Shijiazhuang (石家庄), the provincial capital.

Highlights

• Chengde Mountain Resort 承德避暑山庄: Begun by the Kangxi Emperor in 1703; UNESCO World Heritage with its outlying temples since 1994.
• Puning Temple (Chengde) 普宁寺: Houses a gilded wooden Thousand-Armed Guanyin 27.21 metres high.
• Jinshanling Great Wall 金山岭长城: National 5A scenic area since 2020.
• Wuling Mountain 雾灵山: Given by the city government as its highest peak, at 2,118 metres.
• Qingchui Peak 磬锤峰: One of the Danxia rock features in the hills around the city.