Zhili

  

Zhili 直隸
Federal state (province)
The Great Wall
Flag
Location of Zhili (green) in China
Capital (and largest city)	Beijing
Divisions	12 prefectures 1 special municipality
Government
• Governor	Ma Sen
• Lieutenant-Governor	Xu Qin
Population (2020)
• Total	130,793,100
Demographics
• Ethnic composition	Han: 96% Manchu: 3% Hui: 0.8% Mongol: 0.3%

Zhili
Traditional Chinese	直隸
Literal meaning	Directly Ruled [Region]
Transcriptions Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Zhílì - Wade–Giles Chih2-li4

Zhili (Chinese: 直隸), also traditionally romanized as Chihli, is a federal state (province) in northeastern China, originally established during the Ming dynasty in the 14th century. It has been the center of government in China for centuries, home to the nation's capital Beijing, which is why its name Zhili means "directly ruled" (by the imperial court). Its large cities, the Beijing–Tianjin metropolitan area, have a population of about 44 million, while the total population of the province is 130.7 million.

Beijing is a special administrative municipality that is controlled directly by the central government of the Republic of China, and is also the provincial capital, while the rest of the province is administered by the provincial government led by the Governor of Zhili. The rest of Zhili is divided into 12 prefectures. Major cities in the province besides the capital also include Baoding and the port of Tianjin, the latter being known as the gateway to Beijing. Five LNESCO World Heritage Sites are located in the province, including Chengde Mountain Resort, the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, and the Eastern and Western Qing tombs, as well as five National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities: Handan, Baoding, Chengde, Zhengding and Shanhaiguan.

The province is one of the first regions in China to develop civilization and in the 19th century one of the first to become industrialized. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, it was ruled by the states of Yan and Zhao, and has long been in the northern borders of the Zhongyuan culture. Since Beijing and its surrounding regions is often chosen as the capital, Zhili serves an important role of containing and protecting the city since the Jin dynasty. During the Yuan dynasty, it was called Zhongshu Province, during the Ming Dynasty, it was North Zhili, and during the Qing dynasty, it was Zhili Province. The name was kept by both the first Republic of China and the People's Republic of China. The 2021 reform of China's administrative divisions turned Zhili into a federal region, as a province.

With a population of over 130 million people, Zhili is China's 6th most-populous province, with about 96% of the population being Han Chinese. It borders the Chinese regions of the Mongolia to the northwest, Shaan-Gan to the west, Zhongyuan to the south, and the disputed Rehe autonomous province to the northeast, which was annexed by China from Manchuria in 2014. Before that Zhili was on China's international border with Manchuria.