The chestnut, an important nut tree species in the world, falls into four categories by region: European chestnut, American chestnut, Japanese chestnut, and Chinese chestnut. The Chinese chestnut is divided into the northern chestnut and the southern chestnut. As the “hometown of the chestnut in China” and the “dominant area of characteristic agricultural products”, Kuancheng is not only one of the origins of the chestnut tree and one of the first areas in China to cultivate chestnuts, but also one of the core areas for chestnut planting in the north of China. As far back as the Han Dynasty, chestnuts became the most important economic fruit tree that was cultivated in Kuancheng, and a traditional chestnut cultivation system with chestnut cultivation as the core and the rational distributions of such resources as crops, medicinal materials, and poultry industries was gradually established.

This system is outstanding for its chestnut varieties and is an important part of the global chestnut variety resource bank. In the long history of chestnut cultivation, local communities have accumulated and passed on the rich knowledge and technical systems from generation to generation, demonstrating the mode of life and production incorporating the effective usi of time and space resources, adapting to the local conditions and satisfying the livelihood needs with sufficient supply. Rich cultural content is a feature of the Kuancheng Traditional Chestnut Eco-Planting System, embodying the ecological view of respecting nature and the social organization form that promotes agricultural production. The woodland/shrubs, chestnut forest, farmland, villages, and waters are the landscape elements in the Kuancheng Traditional Chestnut Eco-Planting System, constituting a typical mountainous agricultural landscape in northern China.