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Chengde was called Rehe in the past. It lies in the northeast of Hebei Province. Chengde borders Beijing and Tianjin on its south, Liaoning Province and Inner Mongolia in the north. The average temperature in the urban area is 8.8℃. It is neither too hot in summer nor too cold in winter.

Chengde has a long history. As early as in the Zhou Dynasty (11th century – 256BC), the Churong and the Donghu (minority nationalities of China) started to inhabit here. Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty (206BC-8AD) first set up Youzhou County, and Chengde was under its administration. In the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Chengde was under the governance of Zhili Province, which was known as Rehe Province in 1928. It was finally confirmed as Chengde City in 1955.

Richly endowed by nature, Chengde enjoys a special landscape. In 1994, the Chengde Mountain Resort and the outer temples were ranked as the World Cultural Heritage by UNSCO. It owns many No.1s of the world: the largest imperial garden — the Mountain Resort; the biggest group of the imperial temples — the Outer Eight Temples; the biggest wooden Buddha — the Goddess of Mercy with a thousand hands and a thousand eyes; the shortest river — the Rehe River; the quintessence of the Great Wall — the Jinshanling Great Wall; the incomparable stone pillar — the Qingchui Peak; the most peculiar pine — the Jiulong (nine dragons) pine, so on and so forth. Chengde enjoys the fame as “the secondary capital and the bright pearl beyond the Great Wall”. Being one of the Top 10 Scenic Spots and the Top 40 Tourist Wonderlands, Chengde is one of the first batch of the cities proclaimed by the State Council as the famous historical and cultural cities. It is also one of the best open cities of China.

(Source: chinaculture.org)