Welcome to Shijiazhuang!
Shijiazhuang (石家庄 Shíjiāzhuāng) is the capital of Hebei Province. It is also the main economic center of Hebei and a relatively important city in China. Shijiazhuang is the largest pharmaceutical base in the country and has important textile, IT, manufacturing, and chemical industries. It can be a useful base for visiting nearby places of interest including two monasteries and a stone bridge built around 600 CE.
Shijiazhuang (simplified Chinese: 石家庄, traditional Chinese: 石家莊, pinyin: Shíjiāzhuāng), formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang, is the capital and largest city of North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about 266 kilometers (165 mi) southwest of Beijing, and it administers eight districts, two county-level cities, and 12 counties.
As of 2019, the city had a total population of 11,031,200, with 4,303,700 in the central (or metro) area comprising the seven districts and the county of Zhengding largely conurbated with the Shijiazhuang metropolitan area as urbanization continues to proliferate. Shijiazhuang's total population ranked twelfth in mainland China. Shijiazhuang experienced dramatic growth after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The population of the metropolitan area has more than quadrupled in 30 years as a result of industrialization and infrastructural developments. From 2008 to 2011, Shijiazhuang implemented a three-year plan which concluded with the reorganization of the city resulting in an increase in green areas and new buildings and roads. A train station, airport, and a subway system have been opened. Shijiazhuang is situated east of the Taihang Mountains, a mountain range extending over 400 km (250 mi) from north to south with an average elevation of 1,500 to 2,000 m (4,900 to 6,600 ft), making Shijiazhuang a place for hiking, outdoor trips, and cycling.