Hebei

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(2002 est. pop. 70.4 million). Hebei (Hopei, Hopeh) Province in northern China covers an area of 187,700 square kilometers, borders in the west on Shanxi, in the north on Inner Mongolia and Liaoning, in the east on the Bohai Gulf—part of the Yellow Sea—and Shandong, and to the south on Henan. The province surrounds the self-governed municipalities of Beijing (8,400 square kilometers) and its seaport, Tianjin (3,900 square kilometers). To the west, the Taihang mountain range, with peaks up to 2,870 meters above sea level, form a physical barrier between Hebei and Shanxi, and in the north the Yanshan range, rising to 1,500 meters, constitutes the traditional frontier between China and the nomads in the north. It is here that the eastern extension of the Great Wall is located. Southern Hebei, covering an area of about 78,000 square kilometers, is part of the north China plain, most of which is lowland under 50 meters above sea level.

The province has a temperate continental monsoon climate. Winters are cold and dry, and in January temperatures may drop to –21°C in the north (a minimum of –42.9°C has been recorded). It is less cold in the south. The rainy season stretches from June through August, and temperatures in July average 18° to 27°C, but most regions have recorded temperatures over 40°C. The capital, Shijiazhuang (1.6 million, 1996), is situated in the southern lowlands, which is also where the majority of Hebei's 64.6 million (1996) people live.

Hebei is divided into 10 regions, 142 counties, and 2 autonomous counties between Beijing and Tianjin that are inhabited by the Hui Muslims, who are the largest minority group in the province. There also are Manchu and Mongolian people in the northeast, but the Han Chinese make up 98 percent of the population. Traces of agriculture date back to 4000 BCE, but the marshy lowlands of southern Hebei were first drained and settled during the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), and for centuries this densely populated area was one of the most productive in the empire. During the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), the area declined as the Chang (Yangtze) River valley was developed. Hebei was incorporated into a number of foreign dynasties, the Liao (916–1125) and the Jin (1115–1234). Beijing became the capital of the Yuan empire (1279–1368), and with brief interruptions, Beijing has remained capital of China.

The economy of Hebei has for centuries been dependent on Beijing, and the intensive agriculture in the lowlands has supplied the capital with wheat, corn, vegetables, and fruit. Light industry is distributed over the province, with major textile centers in Shijiazhuang and Handan. In 1976 a major earthquake (7.8 on the Richter scale) devastated the city of Tangshan in eastern Hebei.

Li Zongmin. (1993) Changes in the Role of Rural Women under the Household Responsibility System: A Case Study of the Impact of Agrarian Reform and Rural Industrialization in Dongyao Village, Hebei Province, North China. Madison, WI: Land Tenure Center.

Myers, Ramon H. (1970) The Chinese Peasant Economy: Agricultural Development in Hopei and Shantung, 1890–1949. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Pomeranz, Kenneth. (1993) The Making of a Hinterland: State, Society, and Economy in Inland North China, 1853–1937. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.