Hebei is a province in North China. It is China's sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It borders Shanxi to the west, Henan to the south, Shandong and Liaoning to the east, and Inner Mongolia to the north; in addition, Hebei entirely surrounds the direct-administered municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin on land. Its population is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0.3% Mongol. Varieties of Chinese spoken include Jilu Mandarin, the Beijing dialect of Mandarin, and Jin Chinese.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (771–226 BC), the region was ruled by the states of Yan and Zhao. During the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), the region was called Zhongshu. It was called North Zhili during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), and simply Zhili during the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). The modern province of Hebei was created in 1928. Five UNESCO World Heritage Sites can be found in the province: the Great Wall of China, Chengde Mountain Resort, Grand Canal, Eastern Qing tombs, and Western Qing tombs. It is also home to five National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities: Handan, Baoding, Chengde, Zhengding and Shanhaiguan.

Hebei's economy is based on agriculture and manufacturing; it is China's premier steel producer, which has contributed to serious air pollution.

"Hebei" means 'north of the river', derived from the province's location north of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. In the Yu Gong, the province is recorded as "Jizhou", lending to its traditional abbreviation of "Ji" (冀).

The province's nickname is "Yanzhao" (燕赵), which is the collective name of the Yan and Zhao states that controlled the region during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (771–221 BC). In 1421, the Yongle Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, and the province surrounding the new capital was first called North Zhili or Zhili, meaning 'directly ruled'. When Nanjing became the capital of the Republic of China in 1928, the province of Zhili was abolished and given its present name of Hebei.

Peking Man, an early pre-historic Homo erectus, lived on the plains of Hebei around 200,000 to 700,000 years ago. Neolithic findings at the prehistoric Beifudi site date to 7000 and 8000 BC.

Many early Chinese myths are set in the province. Fuxi, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, is said to have lived in present-day Xingtai. The mythical Battle of Zhuolu, won by the Yellow Emperor, Yan Emperor, and their Yanhuang tribes against the Chiyou-led Jiuli tribes, took place in Zhangjiakou and started the Huaxia civilization.

During the Spring and Autumn period (722–476 BC), Hebei was under the rule of Yan in the north and Jin in the south. Also during this period, a nomadic people known as Dí invaded the plains of northern China and established Zhongshan in central Hebei. In the Warring States period (403–221 BC), Jin was partitioned and much of its territory in Hebei went to Zhao.

The Qin dynasty unified China in 221 BC. The Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) ruled the area under two provinces, You Prefecture in the north and Ji Province in the south. At the end of the Han dynasty, most of Hebei was under the control of warlords Gongsun Zan in the north and Yuan Shao further south. Yuan Shao emerged as the victor of the two, but he was defeated by Cao Cao in the Battle of Guandu in 200. Hebei came under the rule of the Kingdom of Wei, established by the descendants of Cao Cao.

After the invasions of northern nomadic peoples at the end of the Western Jin dynasty, chaos ensued in the Sixteen Kingdoms and the Northern and Southern dynasties. Because of its location on the northern frontier, Hebei changed hands many times and was controlled at various times by Later Zhao, Former Yan, Former Qin, and Later Yan. The Northern Wei reunified northern China in 440 but split in 534, with Hebei coming under Eastern Wei; then the Northern Qi, with its capital at Ye near modern Linzhang, Hebei. The Sui dynasty again unified China in 589.

During the Tang dynasty (618–907), the area was officially called Hebei for the first time. The Great Yan State was established in Hebei from 756 to 763 during the An Lushan Rebellion. After the rebellion, Lulong Jiedushi retained its autonomy from Tang during most of the 9th century. During the late Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Lulong was fragmented among several regimes including the short-lived Yan. It was eventually annexed in 913 by Li Cunxu, who established the Later Tang (923–936). Emperor Gaozu of the Later Jin dynasty ceded much of northern Hebei to the Khitan Liao dynasty. This territory, called the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, became a weakness in the Chinese defense against the Khitans for the next century because it lay within the Great Wall.

During the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), the sixteen ceded prefectures continued to be an area of contention between Song China and the Liao dynasty. Later, the Southern Song dynasty abandoned all of North China, including Hebei, to the Jurchen Jin dynasty after the 1127 Jingkang Incident of the Jin–Song wars. Hebei was heavily affected by the flooding of the Yellow River; between 1048 and 1128, the river ran directly through the province rather than to its south.

The Mongol Yuan dynasty divided China into provinces but did not establish Hebei as a province. Instead, the area was directly administrated by the Secretariat at the capital Dadu.

The Ming dynasty ruled Hebei as Beizhili, meaning Northern Directly Ruled because the area contained and was directly ruled by the imperial capital in Beijing. The "Northern" designation was used because there was a southern counterpart covering present-day Jiangsu and Anhui. When the Manchu Qing dynasty came to power in 1644, they abolished the southern counterpart, and Hebei became known as Zhili or Directly Ruled. During the Qing dynasty, the northern borders of Zhili extended deep into Inner Mongolia and overlapped in jurisdiction with the leagues of Inner Mongolia.

The Qing dynasty collapsed in 1912 and was replaced by the Republic of China. In a few years, China descended into a civil war, with regional warlords vying for power. Since Zhili was so close to the capital of Beijing, it was the site of the Zhiwan War, the First Zhifeng War, and the Second Zhifeng War. With the success of the Northern Expedition in 1926 and 1927 by the Kuomintang, the capital was moved from Beijing to Nanjing. As a result, the province's name was changed to Hebei, reflecting the relocation of the capital and its standard provincial administration.

During the World War II, Hebei was under the control of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state of Imperial Japan.

The founding of the People's Republic of China saw several changes. The region around Chengde, previously part of Rehe Province (historically part of Manchuria), and the region around Zhangjiakou, previously part of Chahar Province (historically part of Inner Mongolia), were merged into Hebei. This extended its borders northwards beyond the Great Wall. Meanwhile, the city of Puyang was carved away, causing Hebei to lose access to the Yellow River. The city became part of the short-lived Pingyuan Province before eventually being annexed into Henan.

The capital was also moved from Baoding to the new city of Shijiazhuang, and, for a short period, to Tianjin. On July 28, 1976, Tangshan was struck by the Tangshan earthquake, the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century, killing over 240,000 people. There were a series of smaller earthquakes in the following decade.

Today, Hebei, along with Beijing and Tianjin municipalities which it includes, make up the Jing-Jin-Ji megalopolis region. With a population of 130 million, it is about six times the size of the New York metropolitan area and is one of the largest megalopolis clusters in China. Beijing had also unloaded some of its non-capital functions to the province with the establishment of the Xiong'an New Area, which integrates the three municipalities.

Hebei is the only province in China to contain plateaus, mountains, hills, shorelines, plains, and lakes. Most of central and southern Hebei lies within the North China Plain. Western Hebei rises into the Taihang Mountains (Taihang Shan), while the Yan Mountains (Yan Shan) runs through northern Hebei. Beyond the mountains are the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The highest peak is Mount Xiaowutai in Yu County in the northwest of the province, with an altitude of 2,882 m (9,455 ft).

Hebei borders the Bohai Sea on the east. The Hai River watershed covers most of the province's central and southern parts; the Luan River watershed covers the northeast. Excluding manmade reservoirs, the largest lake in Hebei is Baiyangdian, located in Anxin County, Baoding.

Major cities in Hebei include: Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao, Handan, and Zhangjiakou.

Hebei has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate. Its winters are cold and dry, while its summers are hot and humid. Temperatures average −16 to −3 °C (3 to 27 °F) in January and 20 to 27 °C (68 to 81 °F) in July. The annual precipitation ranges from 400 to 800 mm (16 to 31 in), concentrated heavily in summer.

Average daily maximum and minimum temperatures for selected locations in Hebei Province, China

City	July (°C)	July (°F)	January (°C)	January (°F)
Baoding	31.7/22.6	89.1/72.7	2.5/–7.7	36.5/18.1
Qinhuangdao	28.1/21.7	82.6/71.1	0.1/–8.8	32.2/16.2
Tangshan	30.2/21.7	86.4/71.1	0.9/–10.2	33.6/13.6
Zhangjiakou	29.4/18.7	84.9/65.7	2.2/–12.9	36.0/8.8

The politics of Hebei is structured in a dual party-government system like all other governing institutions in mainland China. The Governor of Hebei is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Hebei. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the governor has less power than the Hebei Chinese Communist Party Provincial Committee Secretary (CCP Party Chief).

Hebei has eleven prefecture-level divisions. All are prefecture-level cities:

Administrative divisions of Hebei
Shijiazhuang Tangshan Qinhuangdao Handan Xingtai Baoding Zhangjiakou Chengde Cangzhou Langfang ↗ Hengshui Beijing Tianjin
Division code	Division	Area in km	Population (2020)	Seat	Divisions
					Districts	Counties	Aut. counties	CL cities
130000	Hebei Province	187,700	74,610,235	Shijiazhuang city	49	91	6	21
130100	Shijiazhuang city	15,848	11,235,086	Chang'an District	8	11		3
130200	Tangshan city	14,334.59	7,717,983	Lunan District	7	4		3
130300	Qinhuangdao city	7791.57	3,136,879	Haigang District	4	2	1
130400	Handan city	12,066	9,413,990	Congtai District	6	11		1
130500	Xingtai city	12,433	7,111,106	Xindu District	4	12		2
130600	Baoding city	22,185	11,544,036	Jingxiu District	5	15		4
130700	Zhangjiakou city	36,861.55	4,118,908	Qiaoxi District	6	10
130800	Chengde city	39512.98	3,354,444	Shuangqiao District	3	4	3	1
130900	Cangzhou city	14,305.28	7,300,783	Yunhe District	2	9	1	4
131000	Langfang city	6,417.29	5,464,087	Anci District	2	5	1	2
131100	Hengshui city	8,836.90	4,212,933	Taocheng District	2	8		1

These eleven prefecture-level divisions are subdivided into 168 county-level divisions (47 districts, 21 county-level cities, 94 counties and 6 autonomous counties). Those are, in turn, divided into 2207 township-level divisions (1 district public office, 937 towns, 979 townships, 55 ethnic townships, and 235 subdistricts). At the end of 2017, the total population of Hebei was 75.2 million.

Population by urban areas of prefecture & county cities
#	Cities	2020 Urban area	2010 Urban area	2020 City proper
1	Shijiazhuang	4,805,079	2,770,344	11,235,086
2	Tangshan	2,667,603	2,128,191	7,717,983
3	Handan	2,280,755	1,316,674	9,413,990
4	Baoding	2,167,607	1,038,195	11,544,036
5	Xingtai	1,371,150	668,765	7,111,106
6	Qinhuangdao	1,320,988	967,877	3,136,879
7	Zhangjiakou	1,185,494	924,628	4,118,908
8	Langfang	768,439	530,840	5,464,087
9	Sanhe	760,107	386,902	see Langfang
10	Cangzhou	727,879	499,411	7,300,783
11	Xiong'an	717,120		see Baoding
12	Hengshui	707,905	389,447	4,212,933
13	Dingzhou	577,440	482,121	see Baoding
14	Chengde	548,329	540,390	3,354,444
15	Qian'an	466,210	308,849	see Tangshan
16	Renqiu	458,878	430,896	see Cangzhou
17	Bazhou	455,923	291,710	see Langfang
18	Wu'an	453,442	293,151	see Handan
19	Zhuozhou	395,792	260,493	see Baoding
20	Zunhua	392,821	299,759	see Tangshan
21	Xinji	368,208	236,658	see Shijiazhuang
22	Huanghua	313,530	296,978	see Cangzhou
23	Gaobeidian	309,413	274,853	see Baoding
24	Hejian	296,820	243,458	see Cangzhou
25	Xinle	281,458	194,480	see Shijiazhuang
26	Luanzhou	278,807		see Tangshan
27	Shahe	265,977	218,958	see Xingtai
28	Botou	264,187	258,203	see Cangzhou
29	Jinzhou	238,153	160,284	see Shijiazhuang
30	Pingquan	228,261		see Chengde
31	Shenzhou	197,414	207,945	see Hengshui
32	Anguo	189,925	135,524	see Baoding
33	Nangong	183,450	188,260	see Xingtai
—	Gaocheng	see Shijiazhuang	286,136	see Shijiazhuang
—	Luquan	see Shijiazhuang	175,602	see Shijiazhuang
—	Jizhou	see Hengshui	165,363	see Hengshui

In 2014, Hebei's gross domestic product (GDP) was 2.942 trillion yuan (US$479 billion). It is ranked sixth in the PRC, with its GDP per capita reaching 40,124 renminbi. As of 2011, the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors of industry contributed 203.46 billion, 877.74 billion, and 537.66 billion RMB respectively. The registered urban unemployment rate was 3.96%.

Hebei's industries include textiles, coal, steel, iron, engineering, chemical production, petroleum, power, ceramics, and food. 40% of Hebei's labor force works in the agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry sectors, with the majority of production from these industries going to Beijing and Tianjin. Hebei's main agricultural products are cereal crops, including wheat, maize, millet, and sorghum. Cash crops like cotton, peanut, soybeans and sesame are also produced.

Hebei has abundant natural resources. The Kailuan mine in Tangshan, with a history of over 100 years, is one of China's first modern coal mines. It remains active, with an annual production of over 20 million metric tonnes. Much of the North China Oilfied is within Hebei. There are major iron mines at Handan and Qian'an. Iron and steel manufacturing are the largest industries in Hebei.

• Baoding Hi-Tech Industry Development Zone
• Langfang Export Processing Zone
• Qinhuangdao Economic & Technological Development Zone
• Qinhuangdao Export Processing Zone
• Shijiazhuang Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone
• Xiong'an New Area

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1912	26,658,000	—
1928	31,232,000	+0.99%
1936–37	28,644,000	−1.08%
1947	28,719,000	+0.02%
1954	35,984,644	+3.27%
1964	45,687,781	+2.42%
1982	53,005,876	+0.83%
1990	61,082,439	+1.79%
2000	66,684,419	+0.88%
2010	71,854,202	+0.75%
2020	74,610,235	+0.38%
Hebei Province was known as Zhili Province until 1928. Beijing was part of Hebei Province until 1928. Tainjin was part of Hebei Province until 1928 and from 1954 to 1967. Rehe Province dissolved in 1955. Parts of it were incorporated into Hebei Province. Qahar Province dissolved in 1952. Parts of it were incorporated into Hebei Province.

The population in Hebei is mostly Han Chinese. There are 55 ethnic minorities in Hebei, representing 4.27% of the total population. The largest ethnic groups are Manchu (2.1 million people), Hui (600,000 people), and Mongol (180,000 people). Population totals do not include those in active service with the People's Liberation Army.

Ethnic groups in Hebei, 2000 census
Nationality	Population	Percentage
Han Chinese	63,781,603	95.65%
Manchu	2,118,711	3.18%
Hui	542,639	0.78%
Mongol	169,887	0.26%
Zhuang	20,832	0.031%

In 2019, the birth rate was 10.83 births per 1,000 people, while the death rate was 6.12 deaths per 1,000 people. The male population is 37,679,003 (50.50%), the female population is 36,931,232 (49.50%). The gender ratio of the total population was 102.02, decreasing by 0.82 from 2010.

The dominant religions in Hebei are Chinese folk religions, Taoist traditions, and Chinese Buddhism. According to surveys conducted in 2007 and 2009, 5.52% of the population believe in and are involved in ancestor veneration, while 3.05% identify as Christian, belonging mostly to the Catholic Church. As of 2010 Muslims constitute 0.82% of the population of Hebei.

Although the surveys did not provide specific data for other religions, 90.61% of the population are either nonreligious or are involved in worship of nature deities, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and folk religious sects. Zailiism is a folk religious sect that originated in Hebei. Local worship of deities organized into benevolent churches in reaction to Catholicism in the Qing dynasty.