A Town Near Beijing Colder Than Harbin

🌈Tips 💕Time: New Year's Day 2024 💕Location: Zhangjiakou, Zhangbei 💕Dinner: 🎄Zhangjiakou borders Inner Mongolia and encompasses grassland geography, making its beef and lamb exceptionally authentic. Ox heads, sheep heads, and sheep trotters are local festive favorites. We tried a highly-rated restaurant in Zhangjiakou—Leilei Pot of Lamb Spine & Seafood BBQ (Gongye Street Branch)—where the lamb spine and trotters were delicious. 🎄Zhangbei's Rixin Iron Pot Steamed Noodles (Teachers' Village Branch) is a decades-old eatery with unchanged prices for over 20 years, serving generous portions of fragrant noodles. Though the staff might seem casual, the flavors are outstanding—highly recommended! 💕Accommodation: For New Year's Eve, we stayed at Zhangjiakou's Lanjing Building Licheng Hotel, which has a paid bathhouse offering scrubs, cupping, and gua sha—experiences may vary. While Yā and I chatted in the bath for half an hour, Huihui enjoyed a thorough scrub. We joked it was a budget-friendly alternative to Northeast-style baths. By our turn, likely because we were the last customers, the attendant rushed through our milk bath in under ten minutes. 💕Transport: The highway from Zhangjiakou to Zhangbei has many steep slopes, icy in snow, and may close during heavy snowfall. Check the weather forecast to avoid getting stranded on the plateau. 🌈Memory 💕Dajingmen Located at Zhangjiakou's northern edge, Dajingmen connects the frontier with inland China as the capital's northern gate. This section of the Great Wall, built atop Northern Wei foundations, dates back over 500 years. In 1368 (Hongwu era), general Xu Da repaired the wall and established this pass. In 1613, governor Wang Daoheng reinforced it and opened Xijingmen. The current Dajingmen gate was built in 1644 (Qing dynasty). This site witnessed cultural exchanges among Mongol, Han, Hui, and Tibetan groups. Since 1571, a frontier market flourished near Yuanbao Mountain, where goods from Mongolia and Europe were traded for silk, tea, and porcelain. 💕Wucheng Street A long-standing commercial hub in Zhangjiakou, Wucheng Street is a must-visit for shopping—filled with pants, suits, dresses, and shoes. Snacks abound, making it perfect for leisurely strolls with friends. West of Wucheng Street lies Zhangjiakou Fort (built 1429), locally called "Fort Village." As a key defense against Mongol forces, it earned the title "Martial City" of the northern frontier. 💕Exhibition Hall The concave-shaped Exhibition Hall spans 162m long and 48m wide, with a three-story main building. Originally topped with "Long Live the Victory of Mao Zedong Thought" (built 1968), it now displays "Build an Open, Prosperous, Civilized Zhangjiakou." Facing Qingshui River, its plaza holds a 5.16m-tall statue of Chairman Mao waving—a site steeped in history. ❤️💛💚💙💜❤️ On New Year's Day 2024, as friends Huihui and Yā prepared to move south, they sought a final winter adventure. Though Harbin was trending, budget constraints led them to equally frigid Zhangjiakou. The plateau's winter is brutal—Siberian winds only weaken past Zhangbei, while its 1,500m altitude, open terrain, and sparse buildings amplify the cold. Regardless, visiting Zhangbei in deep winter offers a razor-wind, snow-blanketed experience. Tiny snowflakes glittered in the slanting sunlight, draping hills in seamless white. The arid plateau rarely sees frozen streams, making our ice-sliding, snowball fights, and carefree runs pure winter joy.