Northern Hebei

Zhangjiakou and Chengde: the Mountain Resort and Eight Outer Temples, the Bashang grassland, the Saihanba forest sea, and the Winter Olympics ski resorts of Chongli, all good in every season.

Northern Hebei is one of Hebei's four regions and includes two prefecture-level cities, Zhangjiakou and Chengde. The commonly mentioned "Bashang Grassland" is only part of the northern plateau here and is not treated as a separate region in this scheme. The Chengde Mountain Resort and the surrounding temples are a World Cultural Heritage site; among the Eight Outer Temples, Puning Temple and the Putuo Zongcheng Temple are of grand scale, and the Jinshanling Great Wall in Luanping is known for its steepness and completeness. Saihanba in northern Chengde is a miracle of man-made forest and is often visited together with the neighboring Ulanbutong grassland in Inner Mongolia; Ulanbutong belongs administratively to Chifeng, but is included here because it is on the same Bashang route. Fengning Bashang is a grassland holiday destination relatively close to Beijing. Chongli in Zhangjiakou hosted the snow events of the 2022 Winter Olympics and has several large ski resorts, the Zhangbei Grassland Skyway is a popular scenic self-drive road, and Nuanquan Ancient Town in Yu County is known for its dashuhua (showers of molten-iron sparks) and paper-cutting. There are two classic itineraries: a loop of two days in Chengde plus two to three days at Saihanba, or a ski weekend in Chongli reached directly by the Beijing–Zhangjiakou high-speed railway; combined trips take about five to seven days. For transport, the Beijing–Zhangjiakou and Beijing–Chengde high-speed railways closely link the two cities with Beijing, both Zhangjiakou and Chengde have civil airports, and self-driving is the main way to get around Bashang. The temperature difference between day and night is large on Bashang, so bring a jacket even in midsummer; winters are bitterly cold, so self-drivers should beware of icy roads, and weekend accommodation is tight in peak season.

Destinations

Itineraries