Zhengding

Lying at the eastern piedmont of Taihang Mountain, the ancient city of Zhengding is 15 kilometers to the north of Shijiazhuang City, 258 kilometers to the south of Beijing, 350 kilometers to the Tianjin New Port, and 275 kilometers to the Huanghua Port. With a relatively flat terrain, the county is higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast, and inclines from northwest to southwest. The altitude is between 105.2 and 57.6 meters. The whole county features relatively singular physiognomy, and the territory is divided into three parts by the Hutuo River and the Laoci River.

Zhengding is a time-honored tourist cultural city. Historical records show that the place had been inhabited by human beings as early as 5,000 years ago. The long history left numerous historic sites and colorful cultural relics for the ancient city, including 12 cultural relics sites under either national or provincial level protection, such as the Longxing Temple, the Linji Temple, the Temple of Literature, the Chengling Tower, the Linxiao Tower and the Hua Tower, etc., 24 cultural relics sites under the city-level and county-level protection. It was listed as a provincial level historical and cultural city in 1989 and proclaimed as a national level historical and cultural city by the State Council in 1993.

The famous Longxing Temple is a magnificent and well-preserved ancient building complex. First built in 586, the temple has a history of more than 1,300 years, and is called as one of the Four Treasures in Hebei, with the other three being the Stone Lions in Cangzhou, the Tower in Dingzhou, the Great Stone Bridge in Zhaozhou.

With booming tourism in recent years, Zhengding kept exploring new resources based on the numerous cultural relics and historic sites. Since 1986, Zhengding has set up the Rongguo Mansion, the Ningrong Street, the No.1 and No.2 Palaces of the Pilgrim to the West, the Palace of The Romance Of Heroes and Gods, the Military Amusement Park, the Zhaoyun Temple, and so on. Modern tourist spots and ancient towers and temples in the ancient city set off each other, attracting numerous sightseers home and abroad. The ancient city has been proclaimed as the place of interest on the largest scale in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei Province.

Zhengding County is in the warm temperate continental climate, with an annual temperature of 13.1 °C, annual precipitation of 525.3 mm and an average frost-free period of 198 days. It has clearly demarcated four seasons, and relatively long period of sunshine, and is frequented by droughts and floods.