Shijiazhuang

Shijiazhuang (石家庄; Shíjiāzhuāng) is the capital of Hebei Province. It is also the main economic centre of Hebei and a relatively important city in China. It can be a useful base for visiting nearby places of interest including two monasteries and a stone bridge built around 600 CE.

Understand
Shijiazhuang is a comparatively young city. It was an unimportant town until the Zhengding-Taiyuan and Beijing-Hankou railways were built, whereupon it become a regional transport hub. Captured by the People's Liberation Army under the leadership of the Communist Party in 1947, it was the cradle of the new China, and for three years housed the party headquarters.

Geography
As of 2022, Shijiazhuang's prefecture boasted a population exceeding 11 million, with over 4 million residing in the central metropolitan area. The city is surrounded by notable regions such as Zhengding County, located 15 km to the north, known for its historic walled city and towering pagodas, and Pingshan County to the northwest, home to a resort area with the world's longest glass bridge and the Xibaipo Memorial, a key site in China's revolutionary history.

Shijiazhuang is a major pharmaceutical hub in China and also hosts significant industries in textiles, information technology, manufacturing, and chemicals.

By plane


Airport buses to Shijiazhuang downtown can be found in Terminal 2. Every bus will depart according to the arrival time of each flight, so you will not miss the last bus even if your flight is delayed and your plane lands at midnight. Fares are ¥20 per person.

Passengers can also connect from the Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport to the nearly HSR station, with scheduled shuttles to the train station. The HSR station has a "rail and air terminal" where passengers complete all formalities without exiting the train station, then connect onto a shuttle bus for accelerated boarding.

By train
Shijiazhuang has one of the largest railway hubs in China, with numerous trains arriving throughout the day. The express train from Beijing takes just over an hour.


 * Shijiazhuang East Railway Station (石家庄东).
 * Shijiazhuang East Railway Station (石家庄东).
 * Shijiazhuang East Railway Station (石家庄东).

By bus
Buses to neighboring cities and towns depart from different bus stations, but each of these stations (and many close destinations) can be conveniently reached by buses (all stations), subways (only Baifo Station) and taxis from Shijiazhuang Railway Station. Long-distance buses (e.g. from Beijing) arrive and depart at the main bus station, with a direct bus line to the railway station.

By car
The road network is quite good, and Shijiazhuang can be reached from Beijing by car in about 3 hours. Expressways also link the provincial capital to Taiyuan, Zhengzhou and other destinations.

Get around
Most tourist attractions are outside the city.

Traffic is marginal, except at high peak hours (American rush hour), at which point it could take as much as 20 minutes to get through certain lights on many of the major roads (especially Ping'An Da Jie, Zhongshan Lu, Yuhua Lu, Jianshe Da Jie and Zhonghua Lu).

By bus
Buses in Shijiazhuang, as in any large city in China, are frequent and cheap: just ¥1 for a journey, whatever the distance. but during the hot season and cold season some buses with air conditioning charge ¥2.

By taxi
Taxis are plentiful, with the flag-drop ¥8.5 for gasoline taxis and ¥8 for EV taxis, and a delay rate of ¥1.60 per five minutes. It's particularly difficult to hail a taxi during the period around 18:00.

For ridesharing, Didi (滴滴出行) app is available.

By subway
Subway Line 1, 2 and 3 are in service. Subway Line 4 and 5 are under construction.

By bike-sharing
Bike-sharing can be found everywhere in this city. As of 2019, the most popular bike-sharing businesses in Shijiazhuang are Hello Bike, Qingju, and Mobike. Just use the app to scan the code printed on bikes, and you can ride the bike to every corner of Shijiazhuang.

See
There are a number of sightseeing places in the area, both natural and historic. Most are not in the city.

Buy
Shijiazhuang is home to large wholesale markets and a good place for great bargains. Be prepared to haggle. There are also a number of very large modern department stores. One of them on the east side of the city is Yuhua Wanda, located on Huai An Lu just east of Century Park, features fast food and an IMAX movie theater, and numerous reasonably priced clothing stores.

Markets

 * Behind and near Dong Fang are EGO, Tai He and Nan San Tiao, for wholesale shopping. Many items are pirated or ripped-off so make certain they work first.
 * Nan San Tiao (南三条) is a region of markets extending north, east and westwards from its southern entrance, which is neighboring Le Hui Cheng. It is many buildings of wholesale goods. Each building has different goods.  There are buildings for cosmetics, women's clothes, purses, children's toys, sheets and towels and many others.
 * Huaite Tea City (怀特茶城) - tea market; many small shops and an entire building of shops - slightly north of Huai An, between YuCai and TiYu.
 * Youyou Aquatic Food City (由由水鲜城). Seafood market and wholesale Western food (a random selection and never the same things twice). Moved from neighboring the former ShiDa campus to neighboring the Thermal Power Station in 2014.

Mid-range
There is no problem finding higher priced accommodation and there is plenty of it.