Beijing 北京 —  Municipality  — Municipality of Beijing • 北京市 Clockwise from top: Tiananmen, Temple of Heaven, National Grand Theatre, and Beijing National Stadium Location of Beijing Municipality within China Coordinates: 39°54′50″N 116°23′30″E / 39.91389°N 116.39167°E / 39.91389; 116.39167Coordinates: 39°54′50″N 116°23′30″E / 39.91389°N 116.39167°E / 39.91389; 116.39167 Country People's Republic of China Divisions[1]  - County-level  - Township-level 16 districts, 2 counties 289 towns and villages Government  • Type Municipality  • CPC Ctte Secretary Liu Qi  • Mayor Guo Jinlong Area  • Municipality 16,801.25 km2 (6,487.00 sq mi) Elevation 43.5 m (142.7 ft) Population (2010)[2]  • Municipality 19,612,368  • Density 1,200/km2 (3,000/sq mi)  • Ranks in China Population: 26th; Density: 4th Demonym Beijinger Major ethnic groups  • Han 96%  • Manchu 2%  • Hui 2%  • Mongol 0.3% Time zone China standard time (UTC+8) Postal code 100000 – 102629 Area code(s) 10 GDP[3] 2011  - Total CNY 1.6 trillion US$ 247.7 billion (13th)  - Per capita CNY 80,394 US$ 12,447 (3rd)  - Growth 8.1% HDI (2008) 0.891 (2nd) – very high License plate prefixes 京A, C, E, F, H, J, K, L, M, N, P 京B (taxis) 京G, Y (outside urban area) 京O (police and authorities) 京V (in red color) (military headquarters, central government) City trees Chinese arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis)   Pagoda tree (Sophora japonica) City flowers China rose (Rosa chinensis)   Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium) Website www.ebeijing.gov.cn This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters. Beijing Chinese 北京 Hanyu Pinyin Běijīng  [Listen] (help·info) Literal meaning Northern capital Transcriptions Hakka - Romanization Pet-kîn Mandarin - Hanyu Pinyin Běijīng  [Listen] (help·info) - Wade–Giles Pei3ching1 or Pei3-ching1 - Postal Map Peking Min - Hokkien POJ Pak-kiaⁿ - Min-dong BUC Báe̤k-gĭng Wu - Romanization poh入cin平 Cantonese (Yue) - Jyutping bak1ging1

Beijing ( /beɪˈdʒɪŋ/; Chinese: 北京; pinyin: Běijīng, [peɪ˨˩ t͡ɕiŋ˥]), formerly romanized as Peking ( /piːˈkɪŋ/ or /peɪˈkɪŋ/), is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The metropolis, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government, with 14 urban and suburban districts and two rural counties.^[4] Beijing Municipality is surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin Municipality to the southeast.^[5]

Beijing is China's second largest city by urban population after Shanghai and is the country's political, cultural, and educational center,^[6] and home to the headquarters for most of China's largest state-owned companies. Beijing is a major transportation hub in the national highway, expressway, railway and high-speed rail network. Beijing's Capital International Airport is the second busiest in the world by passenger traffic.

Few cities in the world have been the political and cultural centre of an area as immense for so long.^[7] Beijing is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, and it has been the political centre of China for centuries.^[8] The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, and huge stone walls and gates,^[9] and its art treasures and universities have made it a centre of culture and art in China.^[9]

Etymology and names[link]

Beijing, from the Chinese characters 北 for north and 京 for capital, means literally the "Northern Capital". This official English spelling is based on the pinyin romanization of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin, Běi Jīng. An older English spelling, Peking, is derived from the Chinese Postal Map Romanisation of the same characters pronounced in the dialects of southern China.

Through the past 3,000 years, the city has taken on numerous other names including Ji, Yanjing, Guangyang, Youzhou, Fanyang, Nanjing, Zhongdu, Dadu (Daidu), Khanbaliq (Cambaluc) and Beiping. In 1421 when the Yongle Emperor moved the capital of the Ming Dynasty north from Nanjing in Jiangsu Province, he renamed the city Beijing. In 1928, when the capital of the Republic of China was moved to Nanjing, the city was renamed Beiping, meaning "Northern Peace". Prior to the advent of the pinyin spelling, Beiping was romanized as Pei-p'ing using the Wade-Giles method. In 1949, when the Communist Party of China made the city the capital of the newly founded People's Republic of China, the city's name again reverted to Beijing.

The one-character abbreviation of Beijing is Jing (京), which appears on automobile licence plates in the city.

History[link]

Early history[link]

The museum at Zhoukoudian, a UNESCO World Heritage Site

The earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the caves date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic homo sapiens also lived there more recently, about 27,000 years ago.^[10] Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality including Wangfujing in downtown Beijing.

The first walled city in Beijing was Ji, the capital of the State of Ji from the 11th to 7th century BCE, and later the capital of the State of Yan, one of the powers of the Warring States period (473–221 BCE). Ji was located to the south of Beijing West Railway Station.^[11] After the fall of the Yan, the subsequent Qin, Han, and Jin dynasties made Ji the prefectural capital of the area.^[1] During the Tang Dynasty, Ji known as Youzhou was headquarter of the Fanyang jiedushi, the military governor of what is now northern Hebei. An Lushan launched the An Shi Rebellion from Fanyang in CE 755.

Medieval period[link]

The pagoda of Tianning Temple, built by 1120 during the Liao Dynasty

In 936, the Later Jin Dynasty (936–947) of northern China ceded a large part of its northern frontier, including Youzhou, to the Khitan Liao Dynasty. In 938, the Liao Dynasty set up a secondary capital at Youzhou, which was renamed Nanjing (the "southern capital"). In 1125, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty conquered the Liao, and in 1153 moved its capital to Liao Nanjing in 1153, which was renamed Zhongdu (中都) or the "central capital".^[1] Zhongdu expanded the old City of Ji in southwest Beijing. Some of the oldest surviving relics in Beijing, such as the Tianning Temple, date to the Liao period.

Mongol forces burned Zhongdu to the ground in 1215 in what is now known as the Battle of Zhongdu.^[12] In 1264, in preparation for the conquest of all of China to establish the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan decided to build a new capital adjacent to the Jin capital.^[13] His capital, Dadu (大都, Chinese for "great capital") or Daidu to the Mongols, spelled Cambaluc or Cambuluc in Marco Polo's accounts, was completed in 1293.^[1][12] Kublai Khan's decision greatly enhanced the status of a city on the northern fringe of China proper. Dadu was centered at the Drum Tower slightly to the north of modern central Beijing, and stretched from what is today Chang'an Avenue in the south to Line 10 of the Beijing Subway in the north. Remnants of the Yuan-era earthen wall, known as Tucheng, still stand.^[14]

Ming and Qing period[link]

An Italian map applying both the names of "Peking" (Beijing) and "Xuntieu" (Shuntian) to the city, published in 1682

In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang, soon after declaring himself the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, sent an army toward Dadu, still held by the Yuan. The last Yuan emperor fled north to Shangdu, and Zhu razed the Yuan palaces in Dadu to the ground.^[15] The city was renamed Beiping (北平) in the same year,^[16] and Shuntian (順天) prefecture was established in the area around the city.^[17] In 1403, the new (and third) Ming emperor – the Yongle Emperor – renamed this city Beijing,^[16] and designated it the co-capital, alongside the (then) current capital of Nanjing. Beijing was the site of a major construction project for a new Imperial residence, the Forbidden City that lasted nearly 15 years, from 1406 to 1420.^[12] When the palace was finished, the Yongle Emperor ceremoniously took up residence. From 1421 onwards, Beijing, also known as Jingshi (京师),^[16] was the "official" capital of the Ming Dynasty, while Nanjing was demoted to the status of "secondary" capital. This system of dual capitals (with Beijing being vastly more important) continued for the duration of the Ming Dynasty. Thirteen of the sixteen Ming Emperors are buried in elaborate tombs near Beijing.

A corner tower of the Forbidden City

By the 15th century, Beijing had essentially taken its current shape. The Ming-era city wall served as the Beijing city wall until modern times, when it was pulled down and the 2nd Ring Road was built in its place.^[18] It is believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world from 1425 to 1650 and from 1710 to 1825.^[19] Another notable building constructed during the Ming period was the Temple of Heaven (built by 1420).^[20] Tiananmen, now a state symbol of the People's Republic of China and featured on its emblem, was first built in 1420, and rebuilt several times later. Tiananmen Square was built in 1651 and enlarged in 1958.^[21] Jesuits finished building the first Beijing-area Roman Catholic church in 1652 at the Xuanwu Gate, where Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) had lived; the modern Nantang (南堂, Southern Cathedral) has been built over the original cathedral.^[22]

The end of the Ming came in 1644, when Li Zicheng's peasant army captured and held Beijing for 40 days, and overthrew the government. When the powerful Manchu army arrived at the outskirts, Li and his followers abandoned the city, allowing the Manchus, under Prince Dorgon, to capture Beijing without a fight.

When Dorgon established the Qing Dynasty as the direct successor of the Ming, Beijing remained China's capital.^[23] The Qing emperors made some modifications to the Imperial residence, but in large part, the Ming buildings and the general layout remained unchanged. Beijing at this time was also known as Jingshi.^[24] The classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber is set in Beijing during the early years of Qing rule at the end of the 17th century.

A German postcard of Beijing from 1900

During the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces captured the city, and looted and burned the Summer Palace and the Old Summer Palace in 1860. Under the Convention of Peking that ended the war, Western powers secured the right to establish permanent diplomatic presences in the Beijing Legation Quarter. In 1900, Beijing was again invaded by foreign powers, this time to quell the Boxer Rebellion.^[25] Some important Imperial structures in the city were destroyed during the fighting, including the Hanlin Academy and the Summer Palace.

Republican era[link]

Map of Beijing, 1914

The fomenters of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 sought to replace Qing rule with a republic, and originally intended to establish the capital at Nanjing. After high-ranking Qing official Yuan Shikai forced the abdication of the Qing emperor in Beijing and ensured the success of the revolution, the revolutionaries in Nanjing accepted Yuan as the president of the new Republic of China, and the capital remained at Beijing. Yuan gradually consolidated power and became by 1915 the new emperor of China, but died less than a year into his reign.^[26]

China then fell under the control of regional warlords. The most powerful factions fought frequent wars (the Zhili-Anhui War, the First Zhili-Fengtian War, and the Second Zhili-Fengtian War) to take control of the capital. Following the success of the Kuomintang (KMT)'s Northern Expedition, which pacified the warlords of the north, Nanjing was officially made the capital of the Republic of China in 1928, and on 28 June of that year, Beijing was renamed Beiping (Peip'ing) (北平),^[27] meaning "northern peace" or "north pacified".^[6]

During the Second Sino-Japanese War,^[6] Beiping fell to Japan on 29 July 1937,^[28] and was made the seat of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state that ruled the ethnic Chinese portions of Japanese-occupied northern China;^[29] the government was later merged into the larger Wang Jingwei government based in Nanjing.^[30]

People's Republic[link]

Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949

On January 31, 1949, during the Chinese Civil War, Communist forces seized control of the city peacefully in the Pingjin Campaign. On October 1 of the same year, the Communist Party of China, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, announced in Tiananmen the creation of the People's Republic of China and renamed the city back to Beijing.^[31] Just a few days earlier, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference had decided that Beijing would be the capital of the new government. In the 1950s, the city began to expand beyond the old walled city and its surrounding neighborhoods, with heavy industries in the west and residential neighborhoods in the north. Many areas of the Beijing city wall was torn down in the 1960s to make way for the construction of the Beijing Subway and 2nd Ring Road.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), the Red Guard movement began in Beijing and the city's government fell victim to one of Mao's first purges. By the fall of 1966, all city schools were shut down and over a million Red Guards from across the country gathered in Beijing for eight rallies at Tiananmen Square with Mao.^[32] In April 1976, a large public gathering of Beijing residents against the Gang of Four and the Cultural Revolution in Tiananmen Square was forcefully suppressed. In October 1976, the Gang of Four was arrested in Zhongnanhai and the Cultural Revolution came to an end. In December 1978, the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress in Beijing, under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, reversed the verdicts against victims of the Cultural Revolution and instituted the "policy of reform and opening up."

Since the early 1980s, the urban area of Beijing has expanded greatly with the completion of the 2nd Ring Road in 1981 and the subsequent addition of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Ring Roads.^[33][34] According to a 2005 newspaper report, the size of the newly developed Beijing was one and a half times larger than that of old Beijing within the 2nd Ring Road.^[35] Wangfujing and Xidan have developed into flourishing shopping districts,^[36] while Zhongguancun has become a major centre of electronics in China.^[37] In recent years, the expansion of Beijing has also brought to the forefront some problems of urbanization, such as heavy traffic, poor air quality, the loss of historic neighbourhoods, and a significant influx of migrants from various regions of the country, especially rural areas.^[38] Beijing was also the location of many significant events in recent Chinese political history such as the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.^[39] On July 13, 2001,^[40] the International Olympic Committee selected Beijing as the host for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Geography[link]

Beijing satellite view from Landsat 5 8 August 2010

Beihai Park, an extensive imperial garden in the center of Beijing

Beijing is situated at the northern tip of the roughly triangular North China Plain, which opens to the south and east of the city. Mountains to the north, northwest and west shield the city and northern China's agricultural heartland from the encroaching desert steppes. The northwestern part of the municipality, especially Yanqing County and Huairou District, are dominated by the Jundu Mountains, while the western part is framed by the Western Hills, or Xishan. The Great Wall of China, which stretches across the northern part of Beijing Municipality, made use of this rugged topography to defend against nomadic incursions from the steppes. Mount Dongling, in the Western Hills and on the border with Hebei, is the municipality's highest point, with an altitude of 2,303 metres (7,556 ft).

Major rivers flowing through the municipality include the Yongding River and the Chaobai River, part of the Hai River system, and flow in a southerly direction. Beijing is also the northern terminus of the Grand Canal of China, which was built across the North China Plain to Hangzhou. Miyun Reservoir, built on the upper reaches of the Chaobai River, is Beijing's largest reservoir, and crucial to its water supply.

The Beijing Botanical Garden

The urban area of Beijing is in the south-central part of the municipality and occupies a small but expanding portion of the municipality's area. It spreads out in bands of concentric ring roads, of which the fifth and outermost, the Sixth Ring Road (the numbering starts at two), passes through several satellite towns. Tian'anmen and Tian'anmen Square are at the centre of Beijing, directly to the south of the Forbidden City, the former residence of the emperors of China. To the west of Tian'anmen is Zhongnanhai, home to the paramount leaders of the PRC. Running through central Beijing from east to west is Chang'an Avenue, one of the city's main thoroughfares.

Climate[link]