Tangshan

About Tangshan

Few Chinese cities carry their history as visibly as Tangshan. In 1976 a devastating earthquake flattened the city, and the place you see today, with its wide boulevards, lakes and parks, was rebuilt almost entirely from scratch. Memorials to the disaster are moving, but the city itself feels green, spacious and forward-looking.

Tangshan was also a cradle of industrial China. The Kailuan coal mines opened here in the late 19th century, and China's first standard-gauge railway was built to carry their coal, alongside the country's first modern cement works. The former mining land south of the centre has since been turned into the large Nanhu park, a symbol of the city's renewal.

The wider municipality reaches from the Bohai coast to the Yanshan mountains, taking in the Eastern Qing Tombs, the Great Wall drowned by the Panjiakou Reservoir and the rebuilt old town of Luanzhou. Tangshan is also the home of Pingju opera and is known for its porcelain and shadow puppetry.