Zunhua 遵化市

Setting and landscape

Three ranges of hills and two river plains run across the city from north to south. Beijing lies 158 kilometres to the west, Tangshan 75 kilometres to the south and Chengde (承德) 100 kilometres to the north. Shuipingkou Wetland Park (水平口湿地公园) in Baozidian town (堡子店镇), the city's only wetland park, takes in water from Chengde and Qianxi (迁西) and connects downstream with the Yuqiao Reservoir (于桥水库); egrets breed along its wooded banks.

History

In the Spring and Autumn period the area was the state of Wuzhong (无终国). Zunhua County was created under the Later Tang (923–936) on the site of a Tang horse-buying station; the Zunhua County Gazetteer (遵化县志) reads the name as following the teaching of Confucius and Mencius to civilise the people. The building of the Eastern Qing Tombs raised it to a zhou (州) in 1676, and in 1743 it became a directly administered zhou governing Yutian (玉田) and Fengrun (丰润). It became a county-level city in 1992.

Two villages won national fame. In the 1950s Mao Zedong praised the "paupers' spirit" of Xipu (西铺村), and in the 1960s Zhou Enlai called the people of Shashiyu (沙石峪), who carried a thousand loads for each mu of field and raised high yields on bare rock, "modern Yugong".

What to see

The Eastern Qing Tombs, 125 kilometres northeast of Beijing and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, spread over 80 square kilometres ringed by mountains. The Shunzhi (顺治), Kangxi (康熙), Qianlong (乾隆), Xianfeng (咸丰) and Tongzhi (同治) emperors lie here with 15 empresses and 136 consorts. Shunzhi's Xiaoling (孝陵) sits at the centre and set the pattern for the rest. Qianlong's Yuling (裕陵) has nine vaults behind four marble doors, covered with Buddhist imagery and more than 30,000 words of Tibetan and Sanskrit scripture. Cixi's Ding Dongling (定东陵) has halls of valuable red wood decorated with gold-glazed paintings and gilded dragons; her tomb and Qianlong's were looted by Sun Dianying's (孙殿英) troops in 1928.

Bijia Mountain (笔架山), 6 kilometres from the urban area, takes its name from peaks shaped like a brush rest. A stele of 1899 records a Bixia Yuanjun (碧霞元君) palace, a Jade Emperor hall and a Dizang (地藏) hall on its three main peaks.

Food and local products

Zunhua carries national titles as a home of hot springs, chestnuts and shiitake mushrooms, and as a centre for the craft of palace-style furniture.

Highlights

• Eastern Qing Tombs 清东陵: Burial ground of five Qing emperors, 15 empresses and 136 consorts over 80 square kilometres.
• Yuling 裕陵: Qianlong's tomb, with nine vaults and scripture carved in Tibetan and Sanskrit.
• Bijia Mountain 笔架山: Brush-rest-shaped peaks 6 kilometres from the city, with temple halls recorded on an 1899 stele.
• Shuipingkou Wetland Park 水平口湿地公园: The city's only wetland park, where egrets breed.