Hebei is a somewhat anonymous province, split into two distinct geographical areas, with two great cities, Beijing and Tianjin, at its heart, but administratively outside its borders. In the south, a landscape of flatlands is spotted with heavy industry and mining towns - China at its least glamorous - home to the majority of the province's sixty million inhabitants. Most travellers pass through here, on their way to or from the capital, if few stop. However, the bleak, sparsely populated tableland rising from the Bohai Gulf in the north of the province has more promise. For most of its history this marked China's northern frontier, and was the setting for numerous battles with invading forces; both the Mongols and the Manchus swept through here. The mark of this bloody history remains in the form of the Great Wall , winding across lonely ridges.

The first wall was built in the fourth century AD, along the Hebei-Shanxi border, an attempt by the small state of Zhongshan to fortify its borders against its aggressive neighbours. Two centuries later, Qin Shi Huang's Wall of Ten Thousand Li skirted the northern borders of the province. The parts of the wall still visible today, though, are the remains of the much later and more extensive Ming-dynasty wall, begun in the fourteenth century as a deterrent against the Mongols. You can see the wall at Shanhaiguan , the point where it meets the sea, today a relaxing little fortress town only a day's journey from Beijing. While you're there, don't miss the strange seaside resort of Beidaihe , just to the south, more appealing to foreign travellers for its garish atmosphere and its history as the holiday home of the Party elite than for its beaches. Well north of the wall, the town of Chengde is the province's most diverting attraction, an imperial base set amid the wild terrain of the Hachin Mongols, and conceived on a grand scale by the eighteenth-century emperor Kangxi, with temples and monuments to match. All three towns are popular spots with domestic tourists, particularly Beijingers snatching a weekend away from the capital's bustle and stress, and part of the interest of going is in seeing the Chinese at their most carefree. Though the Chinese like their holiday spots the way they like their restaurants, renao - hot and noisy, it's easy to beat the crowds and find some great scenery, and each town makes a rewarding visit.

Tianjin , an industrial giant, has outgrown its role as the region's capital to become a separate municipality. An ex-concession town with a distinctly Western stamp, it's worth a day trip from Beijing to see its unique streetscapes, a striking medley of nineteenth-century European architecture and Chinese modernism. Hebei's new capital, Shijiazhuang , in the south, is a major rail junction but a rather dull town, though you may well find yourself passing through, in which case it's worth checking out the few historical sites scattered in the countryside around.