Chengde, city surrounded by mountains, was built under Qing dynasty from 1703 to 1790. You will enjoy there the charm of a small provincial city, with its night market and its major tourist attractions the Chengde Mountain Resort and the Eight Outer Temples. Chengde Mountain Resort was a summer resort palace.

Bishushanzhuang

The imperial palace, miniature of Beijing's Forbiden City, stand in a 560 ha park where the emperors Kangxi and Qianlong made arrange counterparts of the landscapes of the South of China with small pleasant lakes.

Temples

On the 12 temples built between 1713 and 1780, 7 remain today and 5 can be visited. These temples contrast by their magnificence with the rustic austerity of the Imperial Palace.

We advise you the visit of the two main ones :

• The temple of Universal Peace (Puning Si Temple) takes as a starting point the Samye, the first bouddhic construction of Tibet.
• The temple of the School of Potala (Putuozongshengmiao) is a miniature counterpart of the tibetain palate-monastery of Lhassa.

How to travel, what budget ?

This excursion is a pleasant weekend travel occasion from April at October. Saturday morning, wake up at 5:00, departure for the train central station at 5:30 for the 7:20 K711 train. Arrival Chengde : 11:18.

If you travel "hard seat", you can ask wagon leader for formulas :, transfers (pickup and drop-off) Chengde train station-hotel, hotel accomodation, travel to some of the temples Sunday morning, purchase train return-ticket for 80-300 yuans/people according to the selected hotel (hotel 0-2 stars, 1-4 people/room, with privative or collective WC-showers, without the main tourist attraction entries nor meals. It is the best solution for a first time, prevents swindle, and give you ability to obtain the round trip ticket that you will never obtain by yourself for Sunday afternoon.

Sunday return of Chengde : 14:40 by the K712 train for Beijing (18:38).

Estimated budget for this weekend : 300-650 CNY / 30-65 € / US$(according to accommodation comfort).