Province's stunning history, scenery attract visitors

Jingxing Lahua is a local singing and dance performance popular in the Taihang Mountains region. With a history of 600 years, it is an intangible cultural legacy item on the national list for protection. [Photo by Yang Shumei/China Daily]

With a great number of cultural legacies and natural wonders, the North China province of Hebei has a lot to offer tourists.

Every part of the province has impressive attractions that tourists cannot afford to miss.

One of the most gorgeous strongholds of the Great Wall, the Shanhai Pass, is located in Qinhuangdao city in northeastern Hebei.

The stronghold, also known as the Mountain and Sea Pass, is sometimes mistaken for the eastern end of the Great Wall. But it's not. The wall starts in Dandong, a city in neighboring Liaoning province.

But it's no exaggeration to say that it is one of the most strategic spots along the wall, as it controls both the land and sea passageway from the northeast, which was inhabited by nomads throughout history, to the southern parts of China where the farming Han people lived.

This is a storied landmark on China's tourism map.

It was associated with the rise of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in 1644, when the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) government was overthrown by rebels.

The garrison commander of the Shanhai Pass, Wu Sangui, was hesitant to make a decision－to follow the rebels' new government or the Qing regime dominated by ethnic Nyuzhen people.

He hoped to have a reunion with his beautiful concubine and asked the rebels to send her to his garrison site.

But his demand was rejected and he became outraged. He opened the stronghold gate and the Qing cavalry flooded in and swept through China in months.