Geography

Handan,a prefecture-level city in Hebei Province,is the central city in southern Hebei. It is flanked by the Taihang Mountains and the North China Plain,and borders Shanxi,Shandong and Henan provinces. The city consists of one county-level municipality,six districts,11 counties and two development zones,namely Handan Economic and Technological Development Zone and Jinan New District,covering an area of 12,000 square kilometers,with 242 townships (towns and subdistricts) and 5,849 villages (communities) under its jurisdiction. There are 9.55 million permanent residents in Handan.

Handan is listed as the National Historical and Cultural City,National Civilized City,China's Outstanding Tourism City,National Landscape Garden City,National Model Green City,National Excellent City for Comprehensive Governance,National Double Support Model City (for nine consecutive years) and the Hygienic City in Hebei Province. It is considered a regional central city in both Outline of the Plan for Coordinated Development for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region and Central Plains Economic Region Planning. In 2020,its GDP reached 363.66 billion yuan,with the total fiscal revenue of 48.33 billion yuan,and the revenue in general public budget of 28.78 billion yuan. The primary,secondary and tertiary industries ratio is 10.4∶43.2∶46.4.(https://www.daowen.com)

Handan's terrain slopes down from west to east,with wide disparity in height and complex landforms. Divided by the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway,its western part is characterized by hilly areas,and the eastern part extends to the North China Plain. Its highest altitude is 1,898.7 meters and the lowest 32.7 meters,with a relative height difference of around 1,866 meters and a total slope of 11.8‰. The city can be roughly divided into five “steps” from west to east: the middle mountainous area in the northwestern part,the low mountainous area in the western part,low mountainous hilly area in the central part,the basin in the central part,and the flooded alluvial plain in the eastern part. The mountainous and hilly areas account for about 46% of the city and the plain areas account for 54%.