Gaobeidian 高碑店市

Setting and landscape

The land slopes very gently from northwest to southeast, and even the highest point is only 39.4 metres above sea level. The Baigou River (白沟河) runs north to south through the middle of the city, dividing it into an eastern and a western half, and the South Juma River (南拒马河) follows the southwestern boundary; both are main flood channels of the Daqing River (大清河) system. Springs are dry and windy, summers hot and wet, and winters cold with little snow.

History

In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods this was the Dukang (督亢) district of the state of Yan (燕). Xincheng County was created in 832 under the Tang, with its seat at today's Xincheng town (新城镇), and came under Baoding Prefecture early in the Ming. The State Council replaced the county with Gaobeidian City on 9 April 1993. The name comes from the town where the city government sits: it stood on the old border of Yan and Zhao (赵), where a tall stele inscribed "south of Yan, north of Zhao" (燕南赵北) once stood.

The city government lists among the notable figures of its past Li Daoyuan (郦道元), the Northern Wei geographer who wrote the Commentary on the Water Classic (水经注), and Zhang Decheng (张德成), the Boxer leader who fought the Eight-Nation Alliance at Zizhulin (紫竹林) in Tianjin.

What to see

Kaishan Temple (开善寺), known locally as the Great Buddha Temple (大佛寺), stands in the northeast corner of Xincheng town. The city annals date its founding to the Tang, and its main hall is one of the very few surviving buildings of the Liao dynasty, thought to date from between about 1004 and 1123. The hall is five bays wide and about 12 metres high under a hipped roof, and uses only four interior columns, a layout common in Liao and Jin building. The city government says the Buddha statues are traditionally attributed to the painter Wu Daozi (吴道子). The temple became a national key protected site in 1996. Four folk music and performance groups, including the Nanhu Nanyue Society (南虎南乐会), are on the Hebei intangible-heritage list.

Food and getting oriented

The city's best-known food is Gaobeidian shredded tofu (高碑店豆腐丝), which has been made here for centuries and has a fine, distinctive taste. The Beijing–Guangzhou railway and the Beijing–Guangzhou high-speed railway both run through the city, and national highways 107 and 112 cross it.

Highlights

• Kaishan Temple 开善寺: Main hall is a rare surviving Liao-dynasty building; national key protected site since 1996.
• Gaobeidian shredded tofu 高碑店豆腐丝: Local speciality with several hundred years of history, known for its delicate taste.