In this study, sapphirine-bearing granulites and sapphirine-absent garnet-sillimanite gneisses from the Tuguiwula area in the eastern segment of the Khondalite Belt, North China Craton (NCC) are interpreted to show a P-T evolution involving cooling at pressures of 8-9 kbar from >960°C to the solidus (~820°C) and late subsolidus decompression. This interpretation is based on the sequence of mineral appearance and thermodynamic modelling of phase equilibria. Sapphirine is observed to coexist with spinel within the peak assemblages. This observation conflicts with the traditional view that spinel generally appears prior to sapphirine and thus indicates pre-T max compression. For ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metapelites at Tuguiwula, a clockwise P-T path may be more likely, which would be consistent with the clockwise P-T evolution of the extensive "normal" granulites (T max <900°C) and UHT granulites at other localities in the eastern segment of the Khondalite Belt. At Tuguiwula, for UHT metapelites with low bulk-rock Mg/ (Mg+Fe T ), the oxidation state/Fe 3+ content is interpreted to be a significant factor in controlling the mineral assemblages. We find that these compositions tend to contain sapphirine under oxidized conditions but spinel (without sapphirine) under reduced conditions. This difference may account for the simultaneous presence of both sapphirine-bearing UHT granulites and sapphirine-absent garnet-sillimanite UHT gneisses at Tuguiwula. LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of metamorphic zircon in the UHT metapelites yields mean 207 Pb/ 206 Pb ages of c. 1.92 Ga (two samples), which are interpreted to record the timing of cooling of the UHT rocks to the solidus. The UHT metamorphism is interpreted to have been generated by mantle upwelling and emplacement of mafic magmas within a post-orogenic setting.

The Jining Group occurs as the eastern segment of the Khondalite Belt, North China Craton and is dominated by a series of granulite facies rocks involving ‘normal’ pelitic granulites recording peak temperatures of ~850 °C and ultrahigh‐temperature (UHT) pelitic granulites recording peak temperatures of 950–1100 °C. The P–T paths and ages of these two types of granulites are controversial. Three pelitic granulite samples in the Jining Group comprising two sillimanite–garnet gneiss samples (J1208 and J1210) and one spinel–garnet gneiss sample (J1303) were collected from Zhaojiayao, where ‘normal’ pelitic granulites occur, for determination of their metamorphic evolution and ages. Samples J1208 and J1210 are interpreted to record cooling paths from the Tmax stages with P–T conditions respectively of ~870–890 °C/7–8 kbar and >840 °C/>7.5 kbar constrained from the stability fields of the observed mineral assemblages and the isopleths of plagioclase, garnet and biotite compositions in pseudosections. Sample J1303 is interpreted to record pre‐Tmax decompression from the kyanite‐stability fields to the Tmax stage of 950–1020 °C/8–9 kbar and a post‐Tmax cooling path revealed mainly from the stability field of the observed mineral assemblage, the plagioclase zoning and the biotite composition isopleth in pseudosections. The post‐Tmax cooling stage can be divided into suprasolidus and subsolidus stages. The suprasolidus cooling may not result in an equilibrium state at the solidus in a rock. Therefore, different minerals may record different P–T conditions along the cooling path; the inferred maximum temperature is commonly higher than the solidus as well as different solidi being recorded for different samples from the same outcrop but experiencing different degrees of melt loss. Plagioclase compositions, especially its zoning in plagioclase‐rich granulites, are predicted to be useful for recording the higher temperature conditions of a granulite's thermal history. The three samples studied seem to record the temperature range covering those of the ‘normal’ and UHT pelitic granulites in the Jining Group, suggesting that UHT conditions may be reached in ‘normal’ granulites without diagnostic UHT indicators. LA‐ICP‐MS zircon U–Pb data provide a continuous trend of concordant 207Pb/206Pb ages from 1.89 to 1.79 Ga for sample J1210, and from 1.94 to 1.80 Ga for sample J1303. These continuous and long age spectrums are interpreted to represent a slow cooling and exhumation process corresponding to the post‐Tmax cooling P–T paths recorded by the pelitic granulites, which may have followed the exhumation of deeply buried rocks in a thickened crust region resulted from a collision event at c. 1.95 Ga as suggested by the pre‐Tmax decompression P–T path.