Hebei

Baoding: Lotus Pond Garden

Hebei, Wade-Giles romanization Ho-pei, conventional Hopeh, sheng (province) of northern China, located on the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli) of the Yellow Sea. It is bounded to the northwest by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and by the provinces of Liaoning to the northeast, Shandong to the southeast, Henan to the south, and Shanxi to the west. Hebei means “North of the [Yellow] River.” The provincial capital was at Baoding until 1958, when it was transferred first to Tianjin and then briefly (1966–68) back to Baoding; since 1968 it has been at Shijiazhuang, about 175 miles (280 km) southwest of Beijing. The present capital is at the junction of three railways: the Beijing-Guangzhou (Canton) line, China’s north-south trunk line, and lines to Shanxi and to Shandong. The large municipalities of Beijing, the national capital, and of Tianjin lie within Hebei province but are both province-level administrative units. Culturally and economically, Hebei is one of the most advanced provinces in northern China. Area 78,200 square miles (202,700 square km). Pop. (2020) 74,610,235.