Intense tectonic deformations in Mesozoic occurred in the Yanshan area in North China, which influenced the tectonic configuration of the whole area. Some important progresses were obtained in the study of Mesozoic tectonics and their associated basin systems in recent years, and at the same time different understandings about the tectonic events of the area also appear. One of the focuses about the events is whether the movement direction of the Late Jurassic thrusting was generally from the north to the south or from the south to the north, and what its scale of displacement in horizontal is. This understanding involves the way of tectonicactivity and its geodynamic background in the Yanshan area during that time. The Chengde area is a typical location to examine the direction of the Late Jurassic structural displacement. Two conflicting understandings have been proposed for the main thrust movement direction and its scale in the Late Jurassic. One is that the direction of thrusting was generally from the north to the south, and formed piggyback basins associated with southward propagating thrusting faults. The other suggests that the direction of thrust faulting was generally from the south to the north, and a block ("thrust plate") bounded by two roughly E-W trending thrust faults, the Shuangmiao fault on the north and the Jiyuqing fault on the south, between Chengde city and Chengde county, was a Late Jurassic exotic "Chengde thrust plate" formed in a low-angle northward thrust faulting, and its thrust distance is more than 40 km. The Shuangmiao thrust fault has been interpreted as a zone constituting the north limb of the "thrust plate". A study of the original sedimentary characteristic, lithofacies distribution, sequences and thickness of the Mesoproterozoic Changchengian strata shows that the strata involved in the interior of the so-call "Chengde thrust plate" are similar to the closed outside about 2 km from the "thrust plate", but different from a hypothetical "root belt" in the Kuancheng area, 40, km or more southwards far away. Additional evidences that the present Mesozoic basins still keep their relatively complete outline in shape are from geological maps and our fieldwork, which indicate the continuity of Mesozoic sedimentary strata, geological boundary lines and even faults in the Chengde area. That the Changchengian lithofacies configuration was not destroyed demonstrate that no obvious change took place in the Mesozoic structural deformation, and the possibility of large-scale horizontal displacement (>40 km) from the south to the north in the Late Jurassic is very small. Therefore, this study does not support the interpretation of large-scale external "thrust plate" in the Chengde area. We interpret that the Shuangmiao thrust fault as a back thrust played a role of accommodation fault due to the late Jurassic southward thrusting on the Jiyuqing fault, and it was reactivated again after the Jurassic.