I went to Handan, Hebei from the 12th to the 15th, walking around and experiencing different aspects of the city. Here’s what I recorded.
Accommodation
I stayed at Hanting Hotel for all 3 days in the urban area. This time, I tried Hanting Premium. After checking, I found that Premium is a brand upgrade from the original Hanting Economy Hotel, but I really didn’t see much improvement—only a slight price increase.
However, there are a few things I liked about Hanting Hotel:
- Convenient
self-service breakfast—not the most delicious, but very convenient. Self-service luggage storage—directly scan your ID card to store luggage, which is very convenient and supports large items.- Provides
iced drinks and tea; the cookies are great. It’s been really hot lately, so being able to have a lemon iced drink right when entering the hotel was wonderful. Unfortunately, not all stores have this. I happened to switch hotels and found that some have fewer offerings. - The hotel provides a
24-hour beverage vending service, which is a godsend for people like me who love iced drinks with extra ice. A lemon cool drink at night is really great.
For a few hundred yuan, Hanting is still a good choice. However, the so-called membership discounts don’t feel particularly cost-effective. If you’re paying for personal consumption, the discounts available on platforms like Gaode Maps are also very good.
Food
I visited three night markets in the urban area: Xinhua Night Market, Chengnan Night Market, and Tangren Street Night Market. I also walked around the nearby roads for a long time. Overall, I found many night stalls with delicious and affordable food. I really liked the flowing heart wide noodles, sweet potato fries, and fried skewers—unhealthy, but still delicious…
During my time in Handan, I didn’t see any Nayuki’s Tea or HeyTea stores. Instead, there were more Mixue Ice Cream & Tea and Shanghai Ayi stores, which says something about the local average consumption level.
Transportation
On the one hand, I was not familiar with the area; on the other hand, electric bikes were too reckless, so I only rode once in a few days—safety first. After that, I took taxis the whole time. The cost wasn’t too high, acceptable.
I also visited Daming County under Handan City. The high-speed train from Beijing to Handan took 2 hours, but getting to Daming by bus took 1 hour, which was quite troublesome.
When returning to Beijing at Handan East Railway Station, I found it was very crowded, and it was still Monday. So I can only draw a rough conclusion: transportation is not very convenient, so all the pressure is concentrated at Handan East Station.
Attractions
- I visited
Daming Ancient City/Guangfu Ancient City. Daming Ancient City is free. These are Ming and Qing Dynasty ancient cities, and I didn’t expect them to be so well preserved. Looking at the ancient city walls, I couldn’t help but imagine those historical dramas—it was quite nice. History rolls forward; through these precious historical sites, let’s imagine the past. Recommended for history enthusiasts. The only bad impression was the overall ticket-buying experience at Guangfu Ancient City, which showed how unregulated and rogue it could be.- Buying tickets online through platforms like Ctrip was successful but could not be validated, so we had to buy tickets on-site. This was really rogue.
- Tickets for Guangfu Mansion can be bought online but are only valid 2 hours after purchase.
- When buying tickets for Wujia Courtyard on-site, the staff casually said that once you enter, you can’t come out and re-enter. We directly refuted by saying, “Look at the back—it says ‘one day’ and there’s no limit on the number of entries.” The staff had nothing to say. So can staff just make up random rules without being able to justify them?
- When buying tickets for Wujia Courtyard on-site, the staff asked if we had bought the city wall ticket. If not, we could get a 5 yuan discount here. But when buying the city wall ticket, no one mentioned this. So it seems that offline prices vary in different places—everything is random.
- Handan
Meile Cityis the largest shopping mall in the city. The night view is great, and the snacks in the supermarket are wonderful—I think they taste better than those in restaurants. - I noticed that many places didn’t have as strict health code/mask requirements as Beijing. It gave me the feeling that others were living a normal life while I was the only clown. I hope everything opens up soon.
Handan Botanical Gardenis quite large, but it’s a bit noisy because it’s close to the railway station.
Final Thoughts
- It’s been really hot lately, so I didn’t visit many outdoor attractions. But the ancient cities are still worth visiting—after all, these are real historical relics. However, you need to be mentally prepared for the unregulated aspects mentioned above.
- I saw that the night market culture in Handan is great, so there are really many delicious foods. Beijingers can only be envious of this.
