Pingyuan (Chinese: 平原; pinyin: Píngyuán) was a former province of the People's Republic of China that existed between 1949 and 1952.

Pingyuan Province was established on August 20, 1949, comprising adjoining prefectures in the provinces of Henan and Shandong: Pan Fusheng was the first Communist Party Chief of the province,[1] and Chao Zhefu was its only governor.

[2] In March 1950, a number of peasants and cattle froze to death when transporting grain to government storage in Puyang prefecture.

Pan took partial responsibility for the "Puyang Incident" and was demoted to deputy party chief.

Its component territories were returned to their original provinces - with the exception of Anyang's Wu'an, Shexian and Linzhang counties, which were transferred to Handan prefecture in Hebei.