HEBEI
PROVINCE

Shijiazhuang
Shijiazhuang, a real challenge of a place-name for non-Chinese speakers, is the capital of Hebei Province, and ranks as one of the most featureless cities open to foreigners in China. The city owes its existence to the decision of the railway builders in the early twentieth century to make what was once a small village a stop on the north-south railway line to Peking. It now has a population of over 500000, and a host of industries, including textiles.

It became the provincial capital by default. Tianjin always used to be the capital of Hebei, but the Peking government decided in the late 1960s that it was necessary to bring Tianjin more closely under central control and separated it from Hebei. The next largest city in the province was Shijiazhuang which therefore took on the honour of becoming capital.

Probably the most interesting place in the city is an orphanage which accommodates all the orphans from the 1976 earthquake in Tangshan. The FOSTHRING THE REVOLUTION ORPHANAGE originally had 500 children under its care, and about 300 were still there in 1981. All the children have to go back to Tangshan, the place where their parents died, when they leave the orphanage, unless they pass the entrance examinations to some college or university. They all study very hard, and are not allowed to mix with children outside the hostel. Three baby girls found among the rubble after the earthquake could not be identified, and were given the surname 'Party'. The three, whose names roughly translate as 'Seedling fostered by the Party', 'Revolutionary Redness fostered by the Party' and 'New Generations fostered by the Party', sing songs for visitors with lyrics such as 'The Party is the sunlight and lam a flower.'

Close to Shijiazhuan3 is the village of XIBAOPUO from where Chair-man Mao directed the civil war against the Nationalists in 1947-48. There is a memorial hall there, and according to the official city guide published in the late 1970S, 'China's wise leader, Chairman Hua, wrote an inscription for the Memorial Hall.' As Hua has now fallen from power. One can assume that the inscription is no longer there.

About 30 miles (48 kilometres) north of Shijiazhuang is a town called Zhengding which contains what are reputed to be the oldest monastery buildings still standing in China, the LONG XING MONAS-TERY, constructed around the eleventh century.

How to get there and where to stay
Shijiazhuang is the junction of four major railway lines. It is about 150 miles (240 kilometres) south of Peking, and the train trip from there takes about four hours.

The hotel used by foreigners is the Shijiazhuang Guesthouse on Yucai Jie in the southeast of the city.

Tangshan

Until 28 July 1976, Tangshan was just another north China coal-mining town with a population of about one million. There was nothing much to see there, especially for tourists. After 28 July 1976, there was even less.

Tangshan had the misfortune to be almost on top of the epicentre of one of the most powerful earthquakes to shake the earth's crust this century. The town was razed in a couple of minutes, and a total of 242000 people died, most of them in Tangshan.

The Tangshan quake measured 8.2 on the open-ended Richter scale. Apart from destroying Tangshan, it shook a large part of north China, causing heavy damage in the cities of Tianjin and Peking as well. It was a major disaster by any measure, although the death toll was still small compared to an earthquake in Shanxi Province in 1556 which reportedly killed 830000.

The best descriptions of the earthquake were obtained by an American seismologist named Cinna Lomnitz and his wife Larissa who visited China in May 1977. They were told that just before the quake hit at 3.42 a.m., the sky over Tangshan lit up 'like daylight' with multi-coloured bursts of light, mostly red and white, waking many people who thought their bedroom lights had been turned on. Then came 'a huge jolt from below' that threw people up against the ceiling. The earth began to churn and sway, demolishing buildings as if they were made of cards. Thousands of sinkholes, looking like bomb craters, appeared throughout Tangshan, some of them probably caused by the collapse of the coal mine shafts below. About 10000 coal miners were believed to have been underground when the quake hit, although Chinese news reports at the time claimed that most of them were rescued.

There were some foreigners in Tangshan on that fateful day, and a couple of them died there. In Peking and other north China cities, the authorities ordered all residents on to the streets in case of further after-shocks, and people lived there, camped beside their homes, for several weeks before the all-clear was announced.

The first foreign travellers to visit Tangshan almost a year after the quake gave a frightening description of what they saw: 'Tangshan is a wreck. The city centre is just an enormous heap of rubble. At first glance it is impossible to distinguish buildings from rubble, but on closer inspection some wrecks that were factories and tenement blocks can be distinguished. It looked like the worst pictures of bombing after World War II.'

However, China, still under the influence of Maoism, seemed to want to pretend that nothing at all had happened. A couple of months after the travellers quoted above visited Tangshan, the official New China News Agency issued the following report: 'With everything in order, Tangshan is as lively and vigorous as any other Chinese city. The number of shops and stalls now operating is 30 per cent more than before the quake. . . all schools and colleges are open.'

Obviously, things did not go as smoothly as the Chinese tried to suggest. The army was immediately sent in to take control of the area and begin the rescue and clean-up operation, but there were still reports of disease and looting, although there is no evidence that either occurred on a large scale. The earthquake was a severe shock to China in other ways, too. At the time, it was clear that Chairman Mao would not last much longer (he died six weeks later), and suspicious peasants were watching closely for signs that the Mandate of Heaven was about to be shifted. The Tangshan earthquake fitted the bill exactly.

In the mid-19705, the Chinese were also trying to pretend, almost as a matter of national honour, that they had virtually solved the problem of earthquake prediction. The seismologists, and the politicians backing them, however, came out of the Tangshan quake looking rather silly. Not only did they fail to predict the tremor, but they forecast a second strong earthquake in the vicinity of Peking shortly afterwards which failed to materialise. Early in 1983, more than six years after the quake, Tangshan had still not been officially re-opened to foreigners, although a number have been there. In March 1982, the Chinese press announced that one-third of Tangshan's surviving residents had been re-housed, indicating that two-thirds of the population were still in makeshift shacks.

How to get there
Tangshan is closed, unless you happen to be a lucky seismologist. However, trains running from Peking to the seaside resort of Beidaihe pass through the city, and it is still possible to see signs of the destruction caused on that summer night in 1976.

Beidaihe (Peitaiho)

Four hours by train east of Peking is the tiny seaside resort of Beidaihe, the summer retreat of the Chinese leadership. Until 1979, this little socialist Lyme Regis-sur-Behai Gulf was strictly out of bounds to all foreigners except diplomats resident in Peking, but it is now open to just about everyone, and is well worth a visit just to catch a glimpse of the Chinese Communist Party on holiday by the sea. When the heat of summer makes the Chinese capital unbearable, many senior Communist officials with their families go to Beidaihe where they can temporarily put aside such things as ideological problems and line-struggles.

The resort was first built around the turn of the century for foreigners resident in Peking and Tianjin - the diplomats, missionaries and businessmen. Around the shores and up in the hills are quaint little bungalows, which in their day were owned by the cream of foreign society in China. It was a resort for an elite, and the natives were, of course, kept very much in their place. Every summer, a substantial Royal Navy ship would anchor off Beidaihe township to relay any important messages to and from the British diplomatic staff ashore.

Beidaihe's charms also appealed to the new elite which came to power in 1949, the year the People's Republic of China was proclaimed by Chairman Mao. The foreigners were, naturally, cleared out, and the bungalows and villas either reserved for senior party officials or given to the ordinary Chinese to live in.

Chairman Mao visited Beidaihe regularly and even wrote one of his obscure classical poems in honour of the place. China's present leaders, Deng Xiaoping, Hu Yaobang and the others, also reportedly maintain villas in the hills at a discreet distance from the foreigners' area.

The DIPLOMATIC CONVALESCENCE HOSTHL, where most foreigners Stay in Beidaihe, is symbolic of one of the more weird aspects of life in China. The Communists, who came to power determined to wipe out the privileges which foreigners enjoyed, have continued them, selectively, for their own purposes. Diplomats and their families, towels over their shoulders, saunter down from their hillside residences, past the guards keeping away local Chinese, and make their way to the foreigners-only beach. An audience of perhaps a couple of dozen local Chinese gentlemen sometimes gathers on the perimeter of the beach to observe the foreigners at play, and to ogle the foreign women in their revealing bikinis.

Up in the village behind the hostel is KEISSLING'S RESTAURANT, a charming place opened by an Austrian entrepreneur in the old days, which probably serves the best bread and ice cream in China. The terrace of the restaurant is, naturally, for foreigners only. The village itself is less segregated. On the pavements, diplomats and foreign tourists mingle with the increasing number of ordinary Chinese tourists.

Meanwhile, officials glide by in their sleek black 'Red Flag' limousines, although the curtains in the car windows prevent the occupants from having to go through the agony of being recognised. Movie stars would sympathise - they have the same problem at St Tropez.

Beidaihe's other claim to fame is that it was the centre of operations for Lin Piao, the late defence minister who allegedly tried to assassinate Mao in 1971. The assassination attempt, as revealed at the sensational 'Gang of Four' trial in 1980, was a farcical comedy of errors. Chairman Mao was to travel by rail from Shanghai to Peking, and Lin Piao and his men 'plotted to attack Chairman Mao's train with flame throwers and 40mm bazookas, dynamite the Shuofang railway bridge near Suzhou, bomb the train from the air or blow up the oil depot in Shanghai near which the special train would pull up.' The other alternative considered, according to the prosecution, was just to murder him. But as Lin Piao and his wife sat waiting in their villa in Beidaihe, their subordinates botched the job, and Mao made it safely to Peking. Panic stricken, the diminutive Lin Piao is said to have requisitioned a British-made Trident jet waiting at the nearby airfield and took off with his closest lieutenants, heading northwest, apparently towards the Soviet Union. The plane crashed on a hillside in Mongolia. There are other theories as to what might have happened, including speculation that Lin Piao was murdered in his Beidaihe villa and his body put on the plane, but the Chinese are unlikely to shed any further light on the incident.

Lin Piao's former residence in Beidaihe, surrounded by an imposing wall and other fortifications, is occasionally used as a guesthouse and can sometimes be visited. Chairman Mao's dragon-like wife, Jiang Qing, also had a villa in Beidaihe, which is now known as Villa No.125.

During the 1950S a large number of convalescent homes were opened in the area, especially for coal miners from the nearby Kailuan mines, among the largest in China. A whole beach and several guesthouses are also traditionally reserved for model workers.

The sedate atmosphere of the village and beach is unlike anything else in China. It is one of the most restful places in the country, although the weather can sometimes be very muggy and oppressive.

How to get there and where to stay
Beidaihe is only open during the summer months and is only accessible by train from Peking. The Diplomatic Convalesence Hostel is the largest and most expensive hotel in Beidaihe with rooms renting for up to 50 yuan a day. Whole bungalows are also available for rent by the month for larger parties. In the village, there are two or three smaller and cheaper hotels which take in foreigners when there is room.

The seafood is fresh and delicious and not to be missed. And what could beat having an ice cream and coffee while Sitting on the terrace of Keissling's as the sun goes down?

Shanhaiguan
Shanhaiguan (the pass between mountains and sea) is the gateway on the Great Wall of China, which stretches away to the west, ending 1500 miles (2400 kilometres) away in the desert at jiayuguan. Shanhaiguan itself is not the end of the Great Wall, which juts into the sea, but that part of it is, alas, closed to foreigners; however, there is a photograph of the end of the wall in the hall above the gateway. The town has always been a strategically important point on the road from central China and the northeast, or Manchuria as it used to be called. The most famous aspect of the gate itself (which was built in 1639) is a huge name board inscribed in striking calligraphy with the words 'Tianxia Di Yi Guan' - 'the first pass under heaven'. Also in the hall above the gateway are a few museum pieces, including some Manchu guard uniforms.

A few miles north of Shanhaiguan is the ZONGNU TEMPLE built in honour of a women whose fianc¨¦, according to legend, was carried away by soldiers on their wedding day to work as a slave on the construction of the Great Wall. She went to find him, and is said to have waited for many weeks on the spot now occupied by the temple, hoping for some news. When she was finally told that her love had died, she began to cry and a long section of the wall instantly collapsed.

Most visitors to Shanhaiguan get there by bus from the seaside resort of Beidaihe to the south. Tours are organised almost every day during the summer.

Chengde
Five hours north of Peking by train is the former summer resort of the Manchu emperors, once known by its Manchurian name of Jehol and now called Chengde. Its full title is Bi Shu Shanzhuang, 'Mountain Hamlet for Escaping the Summer Heat'. The valley in which it is situated, 150 miles (240 kilometres) north of Peking, enchanted the second Manchu emperor, Kang Xi, and he ordered the construction of a palace for him to retire to during the hot summer months. Work began in 1703 and was completed in 1790 by the emperor Qian Long. The resort was virtually abandoned by the court in 1820 after Emperor Jia Qing died there after being struck by lightning.

The palace includes miniature replicas of famous structures in other parts of the country. The seven-mile4ong wall which surrounds the former deer park palace looks like a small version of the Great Wall, while around the small lakes are causeways and bridges reminiscent of those in Hangzhou in eastern China. Outside the palace grounds are eight temples, one of which resembles the Potala Palace in Tibet. At the southern point of the resort park are the Four Palaces, the main living quarters of the emperor and his attendants, while the lakes are to the northeast of these.

Unless you are in a rush, Chengde is worth more than just one day of your time. During the summer, there are pleasant walks among the old palace buildings or you can strike out into the controlled wilderness of the walled deer park, almost deserted except for courting couples necking behind trees and no doubt cursing the lumbering, inquisitive foreigners.

There are two guesthouses, one just opposite the entrance to the resort, and another about 20 minutes' walk away. The food in both is reported to be very good.