Zunhua

Zunhua is a county-level city in the Tangshan prefecture of Hebei in China.

Understand
You are probably in this city to visit the Eastern Qing Tombs, a beautiful site that, although not too far from Beijing, can be a hassle for tourists, especially international ones, to reach. The lack of a high-speed rail connection to Zunhua and the difficulty in navigating long-distance buses from Beijing without knowledge of Chinese can be challenging. However, if you manage to get here, you'll be rewarded with a historically significant site that is often not crowded. You might even find yourself descending into the tomb of the Qianlong Emperor and being the only one in the entire cavernous tomb.

There are three Manchu ethnic townships in Zunhua, including Dongling Manchu Ethnic Township. This community is descended from the Manchu tomb keepers who originally guarded the tombs. Located within the area of the Eastern Qing Tombs, they now serve as tour guides.

By train
The city is not served by high speed rail.

By bus
There are long-distance buses from Beijing to Zunhua. The morning buses depart from Sihui Long Distance Bus Station in Chaoyang District at 7:05 AM and 8:05 AM. The journey takes approximately 2.5 hours and costs RMB 66. The bus makes a stop at the entrance of the Eastern Qing Tombs, which is about 2 hours from Beijing. If you want to return to Beijing from the Eastern Qing Tombs by bus, you need to walk approximately 1.5 km down the road from the entrance to reach the bus station.

Get around
You can easily call a cab using a hailing app from the Eastern Qing Tombs to the city center of Zunhua, which is about 23 km away. While there are buses from Zunhua city center to Tangshan, they are infrequent. It is better to take a shared taxi, which costs about RMB 40 per passenger.