Zhangjiakou Culture

Zhangjiakou Culture introduces Zhangjiakou Culture Tour information about People, Language, Costumes, Cuisine, Festivals, Song and Dance, Traditional Crafts, Architecture, Museums, Religion, Historical Sites, Traditional Villages, Intangible Cultural Heritages and Inheritors of Intangible Cultural Heritages as well as the culture of Zhangjiakou 2022 Winter Olympics.

History of Zhangjiakou

Zhangjiakou has a long history and profound cultural background. As early as the eighth year of Jiajing (1529), garrison Zhang Zhen opened a small gate on the North Wall Gate, which was called "small north gate". Since the gate was as small as a mouth and was built by Zhang Zhen, it was called "Zhangjiakou". On November 05, 2013, the Chinese Olympic Committee officially approved Beijing and Zhangjiakou to bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing will host the ice events and Zhangjiakou will host the snow events.

About 5,000 years ago, the yellow emperor tribe allied with the Yan emperor tribe fought a great war with the Chiyou tribe in the north in Zhuolu county, Zhangjiakou city, Hebei province. The battle of Zhuolu had a great influence on the transformation of the ancient Huaxia nationality from barbarism to civilization. Zhangjiakou witnessed the conflict and blend between the Central Plains and the northern minorities. During the Anti-Japanese War, anti-Japanese democratic governments were set up in many counties of Zhangjiakou City.

More about Zhangjiakou History.

People of Zhangjiakou

In 2018, Zhangjiakou had a total household registration population of 4.654 million. At the end of the year, the resident population was 4.434 million, an increase of 0.05 million over the previous year. Among them, the urban population is 2.5378 million, and the urbanization rate of the resident population is 57.24%, an increase of 1.32 percentage points over the previous year. The birth rate of the resident population is 9.37‰, and the death rate is 7.77‰. The natural population growth rate is 1.60‰.

In addition to the Han nationality, Zhangjiakou has 26 ethnic minorities including Hui, Manchu, Mongolian, Zhuang, Korean, Tibetan, Miao and Uygur. The ethnic minorities in Zhangjiakou are mainly Hui, Manchu and Mongolian.

The Great Wall Museum of China

Zhangjiakou is known as the Great Wall Museum. In Zhangjiakou, almost all kinds of architectural forms of the great wall can be found here. Scholars of the Great Wall agree that Zhangjiakou itself is a museum of the Great Wall. The development of Zhangjiakou is the history of the rise and fall of the Great Wall. Up to now, the whole city is built from south to north along the Great Wall, with a strong culture of the Great Wall.

It has the four most of great walls in China:

  • The most mileage of the Great Wall (prefecture level city),
  • The oldest distribution of the Great Wall (from the spring and Autumn Warring States period to the Qing Dynasty), and the most complete architectural form.
  • The only great wall pass named after "gate" in China.
  • Different from Badaling, Simatai and other great walls, climbing Zhangjiakou's great wall is totally free of tickets, and it is just around the city with convenient transportation. It can be said that it is the most convenient choice of the Great Wall for tourists.

Cultural Relics of Zhangjiakou

The city has identified 2910 immovable cultural relics sites, including 27 national key cultural relics protection units, 65 provincial key cultural relics protection units, 200 municipal and county-level cultural relics protection units, and 2619 general cultural relics sites. Among them, there are ancient sites, ancient tombs, ancient buildings, ancient city sites, cliff stone carvings, steles, scriptures and other memorial sites of modern and modern revolution.

Top Culture Sights in Zhangjiakou

Ice and Snow Culture of Zhangjiakou

In winter, Zhangjiakou is covered with snow, which is a scenery of northern China. It has several feet of snow on the mountain and is a natural resort for skiing tourism. Chongli and Chicheng have the largest natural ski resorts in North China. In 2015, Zhangjiakou successfully applied for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and plan to built an outdoor town in China, where several snow fields in Chongli have very complete snow tracks and supporting facilities. Chongli District has built 7 large-scale snow fields and 169 snow lanes with 162 kilometers, becoming one of the largest ski areas in China and attracting ski enthusiasts from all over the world. In recent years, Russia, the United States, Finland, Norway, Japan, South Korea and other national teams have also gone to Chongli snow field for training.

Top Ski Resorts in Zhangjiakou

Cuisine of Zhangjiakou

Zhangjiakou is located outside the Great Wall. Due to its high altitude, cold climate and short frost-free period, crops are harvested only once a year. The products are relatively monotonous and coarse grains are abundant, with corn, millet, broomcorn millet, potato, naked oats and sorghum as the major crops. In the old days, due to geographical reasons, the living customs between counties in Zhangjiakou were quite different. Zhangjiakou food culture has a long history. Influenced by many factors, such as plain farming food culture, grassland food culture and court food culture, Zhangjiakou food culture combines the essence of multi-ethnic food culture and forms a featured local food culture.

In order to comprehensively improve the quality and level of catering services for the Zhangjiakou venues of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games, the Zhangjiakou government has actively developed an "Olympic menu" to serve tourists from all the tourists from home and aboard. 

See more about Zhangjiakou Food.

Festivals in Zhangjiakou

There are many tourists visiting Zhangjiakou every year, so it is necessary to know clearly the special festival activities of Zhangjiakou. The Bashang Grassland Tourism Festival in Zhangjiakou, China, sponsored by Hebei Provincial Tourism Bureau and Zhangjiakou Municipal Government, is an important tourism festival in Zhangjiakou summer. It is held alternately in Zhangbei County and Guyuan County in early July each year. The Chinese Huailai Grape Picking Festival sponsored by Zhangjiakou Municipal People's Government is held in Huailai County from mid-September to mid-October every year. Chongli Ski Travel Month in Zhangjiakou is held in Chongli in Zhangjiakou from January to February each year.

Every year during the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, Wanquan County in Hebei Province holds large-scale folk art activities, which are called Wanquan Community Fire. 

Ethnic Towns in Zhangjiakou

There are two ethnic towns in Zhangjiakou, located at Huailai County and Guyuan County.

Ancient Villages in Zhangjiakou

  • Zhangzhongbao Village, Daiwang Town, Yuxian County
  • Qianzi Village, Nuanquan Town, Yuxian County
  • Beifangcheng Village, Yongquanzhuang Township, Yuxian County

More Ancient Villages in Zhangjiakou.

Intangible Cultural Heritages in Zhangjiakou

Intangible cultural heritage, as an important component of traditional Chinese culture, records the history of the Chinese nation's living and reproduction, and embodies the spirit of the Chinese nation. It uses sound, image and skills as its means of expression, and is passed on by word of mouth as a cultural chain. Since 2009, many folk customs and traditional skills in Zhangjiakou have won the title of Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Project.

  • Yuxian County Paper Cut
  • Nuanquan Beating Trees and Flowers
  • Baidengshan Ritual of Yuxian County
  • Bronze Ware Making Techniques of Yuxian County
  • Production Techniques of Naked Oat Noodles
  • Yuxian County Yangko
  • Errentai Opera
  • Jin opera

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Edited by Hellen He/何琴