A. Geographical location
Handan City is located at the southern part of Hebei Province. It is between 36o10' to 37o2' north parallel and 113o30' to 115o28' east meridian with Taihang Mountains at its western part and North China Plain at its east part. It is 150 kilometers away from the Provincial Capital City of Shijiazhuang to its north, and about 450 kilometers away from the Capital City, Beijing. The total area of Handan City is 12000 square kilometers. Its urban area is 457 square kilometers.
Handan City enjoys a favorable geographical location with easy access. The railways, expressways, National highways and the roads on each level run across it and form a traffic network. Handan is a hub of communication and transportation connecting 4 provinces of Shanxi, Shandong, Henan and Hebei province.
B. Topography and landforms
The physical features of Handan City is higher in the west and lower in the east, where is the transitional zones of Taihang mountains and subsided area of North China plain. Taking Jing-guang railway as the boundary line, the eastern area is the flat and open pediment; the western is an eroded area with mountains, hills, basins, and valleys passing through. The surface has great differences .The highest point is the main peak, Ole yazhai in Taihang Mountain with an elevation of 1898.7 meters; the lowest point is the Wujianfang village in Quzhou County with an elevation of 32.7 meters.
C.People and Nation
Total population of Handan City is 8.499 million in the year end of 2002 including 6.898 million agricultural people and 1.614 million of non-agricultural people; of which 4.287 million of males and 4.156 million of female people. The natural population increase rate in 2002 was 5.64‰. Urban population was 1.36 million. Handan Citys' population is third in Hebei province. Of the total population of Handan City, most are Han nationality; the minority mainly consists of over 30 nationalities such as Hui, Mongolia, Zhuang, Corea nationality. The population of minorities constitutes 0.6% of total population of the whole city.
D. Resources environment
Handan has rich mineral resources. There are about 40 varieties of metals and non-metal mainly including coal mime, iron mine, rock for cement, aluminum ore and clay mineral and so on. Among them reserves of coal and iron mineral are quite rich, It is one of the famous productive area for coking coal and iron mineral in the country.
Handan is a famous historical city in China with rich tourist resources. There are over 500 sightseeing and historical sites. They are Wuling Congtai, Luxian Temple in Huangliangmeng, Wuohuang Palace and Xiangtang Mountain Grottos and so on. There are also new developed folky seneraries like Changshou Village, Jingniang Lake, Wudang Mountain, etc.
E.dministrative divisions
Handan has 1 city, 4 districts and 14 counties under its jurisdiction. They are Wu'an city, Hanshan district, Congtai district, Fuxing district, Fengfeng mineral district, Handan county, Linzhang county, Cheng'an county, Daming county, She county, Ci county, Feixiang County, Yongnian connty, Qiu county, Jize county, Guangping county, Quzhou county, Wei county, Guantao county. The City has 214 town and townships, and .5403 administrative villages.
F.History and culture
Handan is an ancient city with more than 3000 years' history which appeared in historical records in the early period of Spring and Autumn. It was the capital city of Zhao, one of the strongest states during the warring state period. It was one of the five most prosperous capitals in Han Dynasty.
Handan, the historic city has rich culture mainly including Ancient Zhao culture symbolized by Zhaowang Town, Wuling Congtai, Wei qi culture symbolized by "Caowei 3 Platform" and Early New Stone culture - Cishan cultural relics. Handan also is the National famous idiom hometown with a lot of historical stories. During the revolutionary warring period, Handan made great contribution. There are reserved revolutionary historical relics such as Jinjiluyu Cenetery and Eight-route Army Headquarter.
G.Climatic environment
Handan is at the north temperate zone monsoon area with visibly changeable seasons. In the last forty years, the average temperature was 13.5 degrees The annual average amount of precipitation was 569.3mm The most annual amount of precipitation was 1575.3mm (in 1963). The least amount of precipitation annually was 220mm (in 1986) The average amount of evaporation annually is 1802 mm, the frost -free period in one year is 200 days; the natural environment is really superior.