Chengde

Chengde, city in northern Hebei sheng (province), China. The city is situated in the mountains separating the North China Plain from the plateaus of Inner Mongolia, approximately 110 miles (180 km) northeast of Beijing, on the Re River (Re He; “Hot River”), a small tributary of the Luan River. The Re River, so called because of the various hot springs that discharge into it above Chengde, gave its name to the city and to the province of which the city was the capital. Pop. (2002 est.) 329,970.

History

Until comparatively recent times this area, some 43 miles (69 km) north of the Great Wall of China, was occupied by a succession of non-Chinese peoples. It first became a part of China proper under the Liao dynasty (907–1125), when it was the seat of Xinghua county, in Bei’an prefecture. Under the 12th-century Jin (Juchen) dynasty, Xinghua county became part of Xingzhou, the name of which was retained under the Yuan (Mongols; 1279–1368). With the fall of the Mongols, Chinese authority in the area beyond the Great Wall declined.

During the earlier Wei dynasty (220–265/266), Chengde had been under the control of the Xingzhou Guard, but in the early 15th century it was abandoned by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and came under the rule of the Chahar (Tsakhar), a Mongol tribe. The Mongols submitted to the Manchus in the late 1620s, but the region became the starting point for many of their incursions into China. In the early 1700s the Qing emperor Kangxi built a summer residence there, calling it Bishu Shanzhuang (“Mountain Estate for Escaping the Heat”). It became the usual practice for the Chinese emperor to leave Beijing for Chengde every summer. About this time the area around Chengde became one of the first intensively colonized and cultivated areas outside the Great Wall; Chengde itself grew into a flourishing city, being given administrative status as a subprefecture (Rehe) in 1723 and as a prefecture (Chengde) in 1733. Under the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12), Mongol vassal princes assembled annually for a great feast, and the emperor came to receive the visits of foreign envoys. The mission from Britain led by Earl Macartney was received there in 1793.

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The city became the seat of the subprefecture of Rehe in 1742 and the superior prefecture of Chengde in 1778, when the area was constituted a part of the province of Zhili (Chihli), the former name for Hebei. It was also the seat of a military vice-governor after 1738 and of a military governor after 1810. After 1821 the summer imperial visits of the court to Chengde were gradually discontinued. Late in the 19th century the ban on Chinese settlement in the Inner Mongolian border area was relaxed, and there was extensive Chinese colonization.

Under the republic, in 1911 Chengde became a regular county and the surrounding area a special administrative district. In 1928 the Nationalist government established the new province of Jehol, with its capital at Chengde, and quartered the Zhenggui army there as a defense against Japanese expansion from Manchuria (Northeast China). In 1933 the Japanese army overran Jehol, and the area was incorporated into the Japanese-sponsored puppet state of Manchukuo.

From 1933 to 1936 the Japanese built a railway linking Chengde with Jinzhou (in Liaoning province) and with the Beijing-Mukden (Shenyang) line, with branches to Chifeng (Inner Mongolia) and to the coal mines at Beipiao (Liaoning). After the Japanese conquest of northern China in 1937, a further line linked Chengde directly to Beijing, via Miyun. The line to Miyun was later abandoned and replaced by another route, leaving Chengde on a spur line.

The contemporary city

After the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, Chengde grew steadily, and from the late 1950s it developed as a centre of heavy industry. There are coal and copper deposits to the south, while in the city itself there is a textile industry processing cotton and hemp. The city still retains an important role as a commercial and collecting centre. In 1956 Jehol province was abolished, and Chengde again became a part of Hebei.

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Chengde, rich in cultural and historical treasures, is one of China’s major tourist destinations, and tourism is increasingly important to the local economy. In addition to the buildings of the Bishu Shanzhuang, which occupy an enclosure some 5 miles (8 km) in circumference, a great many splendid lamaseries (monasteries of Tibetan Buddhism) and many smaller temples and shrines are found throughout the area. Two of the largest of these temples are imitations of those found in Tibet: the Potala, the fortress-palace of the Dalai Lamas at Lhasa; and the Trashilhunpo monastery at Xigaze (Rikaze). The palace, monasteries, and temples—which are under government protection—were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994.