Chengde is located in the Northeast of Hebei Province. It is the regional city under the jurisdiction of province with the whole population of 3.49 million and the area of 40 thousand square kilometers. It consists of three districts and eight counties. There are many scenic spots and historic sites in Chengde, and beautiful natural scenery and nice climate in four seasons. It is one of the 24 Famous History and Culture Cities firstly improved by the State Council and one of the Top 10 Famous Scenic Spots of China and one of the 44 Key Scenic Spots in china and one of the 40 Best Tourist Sites in China. At the end of 1994, the Imperial Summer Resort together with the temples around it was listed as the World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO. In June 1998, the Imperial summer Resort was confirmed to be one of the 10 model civilized scenic spots of the whole country. At the end of 1998, Chengde City was chosen through public appraisal as the Top Tourist City in China.
Chengde city has abundant travel resources. The government of Chengde City has put 3000 million yuan into rebuilding the well known Imperial Summer Resort and Outer Eight Temples. Now the renovation of forty scenic spots of "Seventy-two Scenic Spots of Emperor Kangxi and Qian long" has been completed.
Seven temples of Outer Eight Temples have been opened to public. Besides, there are newly-opened tourist regions such as Qingchui Peak forest Garden, Kuixing Tower, Twin Towers Mountain. In the county region there are also rich tourist sites. Jinshanling Great Wall is situated in Luanping county; "The First Grassland in the North of Beijing" located in Fengning County has natural beauty and the advantage of good geographical position; In "White Clouds Ancient Caves" (Baiyun Caves), you can see the marvelous spectacle of strange perilous peaks, lovely dells, typical natural beauty and see the Buddhist monks, nuns and Taoists all around; The famous "Mulan Weichang" (Mulan Hunting Site) in Weichang County is the imperial place of the Qing Dynasty for hunting, now it is amice place for cooling off in summer and skiing and hunting in winter; Fog Ghost (Wuling) Mountain in Xinglong county has many kinds of animals and plants which has been confirmed as the nature reserve under the State protection; "Great Wall in the Water" in Kuancheng County is a wonder of the 10,000-li Great Wall; The landscape in the source of Liaohe River in Pingquan is charming;
The wild forest can be seen clearly; the meadow and the vast grassland on the top of the hill appear to be an attractive grassy meadow landscape in high mountains. At present, the projects such as "Tour of Beijing-Chengde World Cultural Heritage", "Tour of Folk Customs", "tour of Skiing and Hunting in Mulan Weichang", "Tour of Forest and Grassland on the Dam (Bashang Grassland)", "Ecological Tour of Beijing-Chengde-Weichang-Fengning-Beijing", "Tour of Historic Sites on the Great Wall in Chengde", "Tour of Scientific Investigation on Fog Ghost Mountain", "Tour of Buddhism" etc. are carried out and very popular among visitors from home and abroad.
Along with the fast development of tourist in dusty, the travel facilities in Chengde City are gradually being improved. There are 21 designated foreign-related hotels, among them 17 are star rated (4 of three stars, 8 of two stars, 5 of one star), there are also the Heaven and Earth (Qianyang) Grand Hotel and the Red Mansion (Honglou) Guesthouse constructed according to four stars grade standard. The whole number of guestrooms of designated foreign-related hotels of the city is more than 3000 guestrooms, altogether 6400 beds.
Besides there are 305 other hotels all over the city and 20 thousand beds. There are 2000 of different kinds of restaurants, among which 21 concerning foreign service and 12 concerning domestic service. They not only have the court dishes, delicious meat and fish dishes but also can serve the inexpensive and daily dishes for the masses.
The traffic in Chengde is very good. The railway and highway network is perfect. In the railway aspect, the special travel train has been established successfully and the time from Beijing to Chengde has shortened from 5 hours in the past to less than 4 hours now. Since 1996, many fast travel train lines have been opened such as from Chengde to Tianjin, from Chengde to Shenyang, from Chengde to Inner Mongolia etc. And the four main train lines Beijing-Chengde, Beijing-Shijiazhuang, Chengde-Shenyang, Beijing-Tonghua have been in use and are very convenient for traveling. At present there are more than 50 travel agencies in Chengde, in which 4 are related to international travel business. Also there are good translation services and travel guides who speak English, Japanese, German, Italian, Spanish, Cantonese and Fujian dialect.
The cultural entertainment in Chengde is very rich and colorful, such as the dancing performance in the imperial palace while the Emperor is having dinner, the traditional dancing performance in Manchu nationality, the charming lights of Putuo, the particular dancing performance just like lots of huge stars round the beautiful moon and the folk dancing and singing performance in primitive and natural villages and villas which win great praise of visitors from home and abroad.
In recent years the tourist industry in Chengde has developed fast. In 1998, 2.9 million people visited Chengde including 90 thousands of foreign tourists and brought the income of 960 million yuan.