Beijing ( ;
; ),
alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
of the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's
most populous national capital city, with over 21 million residents and the second largest in the country after
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
. It is located in
Northern China
Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climate ...
, and is governed as a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
under the direct administration of the
State Council State Council may refer to:
Government
* State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President
* State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...
with
16 urban, suburban, and rural districts.
[Figures based on 2006 statistics published in 2007 National Statistical Yearbook of China and available online at ]
archive
. Retrieved 21 April 2009. Beijing is mostly surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring
Tianjin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...
to the southeast; together, the three divisions form the
Jingjinji
The Jingjinji Metropolitan Region or Jing-Jin-Ji (JJJ),, sometimes rendered in historical context as King–Sin–Peh, also known as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BJ-TJ-HB), Peking–Tientsin–Hopeh and the Capital Economic Zone, is the National Cap ...
megalopolis
A megalopolis () or a supercity, also called a megaregion, is a group of metropolitan areas which are perceived as a continuous urban area through common systems of transport, economy, resources, ecology, and so on. They are integrated enoug ...
and the
national capital region
A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...
of China.
Beijing is a
global city and one of the world's leading centres for
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
,
diplomacy
Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. 1 ...
,
politics
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...
,
finance
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
,
business and economics
Business economics is a field in applied economics which uses economic theory and quantitative methods to analyze business enterprises and the factors contributing to the diversity of organizational structures and the relationships of firms with ...
,
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
,
research
Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular att ...
,
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
,
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
,
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
,
sport
Sport pertains to any form of Competition, competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and Skill, skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to specta ...
,
science and technology
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...
and
transportation
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
. As a
megacity
A megacity is a very large city, typically with a population of more than 10 million people. Precise definitions vary: the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in its 2018 "World Urbanization Prospects" report counted urban ...
, Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by
urban population
An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
after Shanghai.
It is home to the headquarters of most of
China's largest state-owned companies and houses the largest number of
Fortune Global 500
The ''Fortune'' Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by ''Fortune'' magazine.
Methodology
Until 1989, it listed onl ...
companies in the world, as well as the world's four biggest
financial institutions
Financial institutions, sometimes called banking institutions, are business entities that provide services as intermediaries for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial insti ...
by total assets.
It is also a
major hub for the
national highway,
expressway
Expressway may refer to:
* Controlled-access highway, the highest-grade type of highway with access ramps, lane markings, etc., for high-speed traffic.
* Limited-access road, a lower grade of highway or arterial road.
*Expressway, the fictional s ...
,
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
, and
high-speed rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
networks. The
Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport is one of two international airports serving Beijing, the other one being Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX). It is located northeast of Beijing's city center, in an exclave of Chaoyang District ...
has been the
second busiest in the world by passenger traffic (
Asia's busiest) since 2010,
and, , the city's
subway network is the
busiest and
longest in the world. The
Beijing Daxing International Airport
Beijing Daxing International Airport , is one of two international airports serving Beijing, the other one being Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK). It is located on the border of Beijing and Langfang, Hebei Province. It has been ...
, a second international airport in Beijing, is the largest single-structure
airport terminal
An airport terminal is a building at an airport where passengers transfer between ground transportation and the facilities that allow them to board and disembark from an Fixed-wing aircraft, aircraft.
Within the terminal, passengers purchase ...
in the world.
Combining both modern and traditional style
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
s, Beijing is
one of the oldest cities in the world, with a rich
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
dating back over three millennia. As the last of the
Four Great Ancient Capitals of China
This is a list of historical capitals of China.
Four Great Ancient Capitals
There are traditionally four major historical capitals of China referred to as the "Four Great Ancient Capitals of China" (). The four are Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang and ...
, Beijing has been the political center of the country for most of the past eight centuries, and was the
largest city in the world by population for much of the
second millennium CE.
With mountains surrounding the inland city on three sides, in addition to the
old inner and outer city walls, Beijing was strategically poised and developed to be the residence of the
emperor
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
and thus was the perfect location for the imperial capital. The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs,
walls and gates.
Beijing is one of the most important tourist destinations of the world. In 2018, Beijing was the second highest earning tourist city in the world after Shanghai.
Beijing is home to many national
monuments and museums and has
seven
7 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
7 or seven may also refer to:
* AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era
* 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era
* The month of
July
Music Artists
* Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s—the
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...
,
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperor of China, Emperors of the Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties for ...
,
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarter ...
,
Ming Tombs
The Ming tombs are a collection of mausoleums built by the emperors of the Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led ...
,
Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian Area () is a town and an area located on the east Fangshan District, Beijing, China. It borders Nanjiao and Fozizhuang Townships to its north, Xiangyang, Chengguan and Yingfeng Subdistricts to its east, Shilou and Hangcunhe Towns to ...
, and parts of the
Great Wall
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eurasian noma ...
and the
Grand Canal—all of which are popular tourist locations.
Siheyuan
A ''siheyuan'' (; IPA: ɹ̩̂.xɤ̌.ɥɛ̂n is a historical type of residence that was commonly found throughout China, most famously in Beijing and rural Shanxi. Throughout Chinese history, the siheyuan composition was the basic pattern used ...
s, the city's traditional housing style, and
hutong
''Hutong'' () are a type of narrow street or alley commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, especially Beijing.
In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of ''siheyuan'', traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods wer ...
s, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing.
Beijing's public universities make up more than one-fifth of
Double First-Class Universities, and many of them consistently rank among the best in the
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...
and the world.
Beijing is home to the two best
C9 League
The C9 League () is an alliance of nine universities in China, initiated by the Government of China, Chinese Central Government to promote the development and reputation of higher education in China in 2009. Collectively, universities in the C9 ...
universities
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
(
Tsinghua
Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education.
The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Project 985 ...
and
Peking
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
) in Asia & Oceania region and
emerging countries
An emerging market (or an emerging country or an emerging economy) is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or were ...
.
Beijing CBD
The Beijing central business district, or Beijing CBD (), is a central business district and the primary area for finance, media, and business services in Beijing, China.
Beijing CBD occupies 3.99 km2 of the Chaoyang District on the e ...
is a center for
Beijing's economic expansion, with the ongoing or recently completed construction of
multiple skyscrapers. Beijing's
Zhongguancun
Zhongguancun () is a major technology hub in Haidian District, Beijing, China.
Zhongguancun occupies a band between the northwestern Third Ring Road and the northwestern Fourth Ring Road, in the northwestern part of Beijing. Zhongguancun is ...
area is a world leading center of scientific and technological innovation as well as entrepreneurship. Beijing has been ranked the city with the largest scientific research output by the
Nature Index The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries and their scientific output since its introduction in November, 2014. Each year, Nature Index ranks the leading institutions (which can be companies, universities, government agen ...
since 2016.
The city has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable being the
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
and
2008 Summer Paralympics
The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was ...
Games. In 2022, Beijing became the first city ever to host both the
Summer
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...
and
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...
,
and also the
Summer
Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...
and
Winter Paralympics
The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete in snow and ice sports. The event includes athletes with mobility impairments, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. Th ...
.
Beijing hosts
175 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many organizations, including the
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the
Silk Road Fund
The Silk Road Fund ( zh, s=丝路基金, t=, p=) is a state-owned investment fund of the Chinese government to foster increased investment in countries along the One Belt, One Road, an economic development initiative primarily covering Eura ...
, the
Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...
, the
Chinese Academy of Engineering
The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE, ) is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for engineering. It was established in 1994 and is an institution of the State Council of China. The CAE and the Chinese Academy of Sciences ...
, the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...
, the
Central Academy of Fine Arts
The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy". It is one of the most selectiv ...
, the
Central Academy of Drama
The Central Academy of Drama (), abbreviated Zhong Xi (), is a drama school in Beijing, China. It is a Chinese state Double First Class University Plan university identified by the Ministry of Education of China. The school is the first theatre ...
, the
Central Conservatory of Music
The Central Conservatory of Music () is a prestigious leading public music school of China and a member of Double First Class University Plan and former Project 211. Its campus is in the Xicheng District of Beijing, China, near Fuxingmen Statio ...
, and the
Red Cross Society of China
The Red Cross Society of China () is the national Red Cross Society in the People's Republic of China.
Origins and history before 1949
The Red Cross Society of China was founded as the Shanghai International Red Cross Committee on March 10, 19 ...
.
Etymology
Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had
numerous other names. The name ''Beijing'', which means "Northern Capital" (from the
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
for ''north'' and for ''capital''), was applied to the city in 1403 during the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
to distinguish the city from
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
(the "Southern Capital").
The English spelling ''Beijing'' is based on the government's official
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
(adopted in the 1980s) of the two characters as they are pronounced in
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern standar ...
. An older English spelling, ''Peking'', was used by Jesuit missionary
Martino Martini
Martino Martini () (20 September 1614 – 6 June 1661), born and raised in Trento (Prince-Bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire), was a Jesuit missionary. As cartographer and historian, he mainly worked on ancient Imperial China.
Early years
Mart ...
in a popular atlas published in Amsterdam in 1655. Although Peking is no longer the common name for the city, some of the city's older locations and facilities, such as
Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport is one of two international airports serving Beijing, the other one being Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX). It is located northeast of Beijing's city center, in an exclave of Chaoyang District ...
, with the
IATA Code
IATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1, 2, 3, or 4 character combinations (referred to as unigrams, digrams, trigrams, or tetragrams, respecti ...
PEK, and
Peking University
Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education.
Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...
, still retain the former romanization.
The single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is , which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
abbreviation
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
for Beijing is "BJ".
History
Early history
The earliest traces of human habitation in the Peking municipality were found in the caves of
Dragon Bone Hill
Zhoukoudian Area () is a town and an area located on the east Fangshan District, Beijing, China. It borders Nanjiao and Fozizhuang Townships to its north, Xiangyang, Chengguan and Yingfeng Subdistricts to its east, Shilou and Hangcunhe Towns to ...
near the village of
Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian Area () is a town and an area located on the east Fangshan District, Beijing, China. It borders Nanjiao and Fozizhuang Townships to its north, Xiangyang, Chengguan and Yingfeng Subdistricts to its east, Shilou and Hangcunhe Towns to ...
in
Fangshan District
Fangshan District () is situated in the southwest of Beijing, away from downtown Beijing. It has an area of and a population of 814,367 (2000 Census). The district is divided into 8 subdistricts, 14 towns, and 6 townships.
The district administ ...
, where
Peking Man
Peking Man (''Homo erectus pekinensis'') is a subspecies of ''Homo erectus, H. erectus'' which inhabited the Zhoukoudian Cave of northern China during the Middle Pleistocene. The first fossil, a tooth, was discovered in 1921, and the Zhoukoudi ...
lived. ''
Homo erectus
''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...
'' fossils from the caves date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago.
Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
''
Homo sapiens
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
'' also lived there more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found
neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
settlements throughout the municipality, including in
Wangfujing
Wangfujing () is a shopping street in Beijing, China, located in Dongcheng District, Beijing, Dongcheng District. The majority of the main area is pedestrianised. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty there have been commercial activities in ...
, located in central Peking.
The first
walled city
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...
in Beijing was
Jicheng, the capital city of the
state of Ji
Ji () was an ancient state in northern China during the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties from at least the 11th century to the 7th century BC. The state was based in the walled City of Ji, or Jicheng, located in the modern day Guang'anmen ne ...
and was built in 1045 BC. Within modern Beijing, Jicheng was located around the present
Guang'anmen
__NOTOC__
Guang'anmen, also known as the , Guangningmen and Zhangyimen, was a city gate of old Beijing, constructed during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor (1521–1567) of the Ming Dynasty. This gate was part of Beijing's city wall, situated s ...
area in the south of
Xicheng District
Xicheng District () is a district of Beijing. Xicheng District spans , covering the western half of the old city (largely inside the 2nd Ring Road - the eastern half is Dongcheng District, Beijing, Dongcheng District), and has 706,691 inhabitant ...
.
This settlement was later conquered by the
state of Yan
Yan (; Old Chinese pronunciation: ''*'') was an ancient Chinese state during the Zhou dynasty. Its capital was Ji (later known as Yanjing and now Beijing). During the Warring States period, the court was also moved to another capital at Xiadu ...
and made its capital.
Early Imperial China
![Tianning Temple Pagoda](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Tianning_Temple_Pagoda.jpg)
After the
First Emperor
Qin Shi Huang (, ; 259–210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of a unified China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" ( ''wáng'') borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he ruled as the First Emperor ( ...
unified China in 221 BC, Jicheng became a
prefectural capital
A prefectural capital is a city where a prefectural government and assembly is located.
Japan
In Japan, a prefectural capital is officially called , but the term is also used ().
List of Japanese prefectural capitals
Notes: ¹
Non-capital ...
for the region.
During the
Three Kingdoms period
The Three Kingdoms () from 220 to 280 AD was the tripartite division of China among the dynastic states of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. The Three Kingdoms period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and was followed by the West ...
, it was held by
Gongsun Zan
Gongsun Zan () (before 161 - April or May 199), courtesy name Bogui, was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty.
Life
Little is known of Gongsun Zan's early life. He and Liu Bei stu ...
and
Yuan Shao
Yuan Shao (, ; died 28 June 202), courtesy name Benchu (), was a Chinese military general, politician, and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He occupied the northern territories of China during the civil wars that occurred to ...
before falling to the
Wei Kingdom of
Cao Cao
Cao Cao () (; 155 – 15 March 220), courtesy name Mengde (), was a Chinese statesman, warlord and poet. He was the penultimate Grand chancellor (China), grand chancellor of the Eastern Han dynasty, and he amassed immense power in the End of ...
. The AD third-century
Western Jin
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
demoted the town, placing the prefectural seat in neighboring
Zhuozhou
Zhuozhou (), is a county-level city with 628,000 inhabitants in Hebei province, bordering Beijing to the north. It is administered by Baoding prefecture-level city. Zhuozhou has 3 subdistricts, 6 towns, 5 townships, and 1 development zone.
Admi ...
. During the
Sixteen Kingdoms
The Sixteen Kingdoms (), less commonly the Sixteen States, was a chaotic period in Chinese history from AD 304 to 439 when northern China fragmented into a series of short-lived dynastic states. The majority of these states were founded by ...
period when northern China was conquered and divided by the
Wu Hu, Jicheng was briefly the capital of the
Xianbei
The Xianbei (; ) were a Proto-Mongolic ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. They originated from the Donghu people who splintered into the ...
Former Yan
The Former Yan (; 337–370) was a dynastic state ruled by the Xianbei during the era of Sixteen Kingdoms in China.
Initially, Murong Huang and his son Murong Jun claimed the Jin dynasty-created title "Prince of Yan," but subsequently, in 352, ...
Kingdom.
After China was reunified by the
Sui dynasty
The Sui dynasty (, ) was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China that lasted from 581 to 618. The Sui unified the Northern and Southern dynasties, thus ending the long period of division following the fall of the Western Jin dynasty, and layi ...
in 581, Jicheng, also known as
Zhuojun, became the northern terminus of the
Grand Canal. Under the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
, Jicheng as
Youzhou
You Prefecture or You Province, also known by its Chinese name Youzhou, was a prefecture ('' zhou'') in northern China during its imperial era.
"You Province" was cited in some ancient sources as one of the nine or twelve original provinces of ...
, served as a military frontier command center. During the
An-Shi Rebellion
The An Lushan Rebellion was an uprising against the Tang dynasty of China towards the mid-point of the dynasty (from 755 to 763), with an attempt to replace it with the Yan dynasty. The rebellion was originally led by An Lushan, a general office ...
and again amidst the turmoil of the late Tang, local military commanders founded their own short-lived Yan dynasties and called the city
Yanjing
Ji or Jicheng was an ancient city in northern China, which has become the longest continuously inhabited section of modern Beijing. Historical mention of Ji dates to the founding of the Zhou dynasty in about 1045BC. Archaeological finds in sout ...
, or the "Yan Capital." Also in the Tang dynasty, the city's name Jicheng was replaced by Youzhou or Yanjing. In 938, after the fall of the Tang, the
Later Jin Later Jin may refer to two states in imperial China:
* Later Jin (Five Dynasties) (後晉; 936–947), one of the Five Dynasties
* Later Jin (1616–1636) (後金; 1616–1636), precursor to the Qing dynasty
See also
* Jin (disambiguation)
Jin ...
ceded
the frontier territory including what is now Beijing to the
Khitan Liao dynasty
The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...
, which treated the city as
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
, or the "Southern Capital", one of four secondary capitals to complement its "Supreme Capital" Shangjing (modern
Baarin Left Banner
Baarin Left Banner ( Mongolian: ''Baɣarin Jegün qosiɣu''; ), or Bairin, is a banner of eastern Inner Mongolia, China, under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chifeng. The banner spans an area of 6,644 square kilometers, and ...
in
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
). Some of the
oldest surviving pagodas in Beijing date to the Liao period, including the
Tianning Pagoda.
The Liao fell to the
Jurchen Jin dynasty Jurchen may refer to:
* Jurchen people, Tungusic people who inhabited the region of Manchuria until the 17th century
** Haixi Jurchens, a grouping of the Jurchens as identified by the Chinese of the Ming Dynasty
** Jianzhou Jurchens, a grouping of ...
in 1122, which gave the city to the
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
and then retook it in 1125 during its
conquest of northern China. In 1153, the Jurchen Jin made Beijing their "Central Capital", or
Zhongdu
Zhongdu (, lit. "Central Capital") was the capital of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in medieval China. It was located in the southwestern part of Beijing's Xicheng District. It had a population of nearly one million by the late 12th century, and ...
.
The city was besieged by
Genghis Khan
''Chinggis Khaan'' ͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋbr />Mongol script: ''Chinggis Qa(gh)an/ Chinggis Khagan''
, birth_name = Temüjin
, successor = Tolui (as regent)Ögedei Khan
, spouse =
, issue =
, house = Borjigin
, ...
's invading
Mongolian army
The Ground Force of Mongolia (, ''Mongol Ulsyn Zevsegt hüchniy Huurai zamyn tsereg'', ) is the land force of the Mongolian Armed Forces, formed from parts of the former Mongolian People's Army in 1992. It was known as the "Mongolian General Purpo ...
in 1213 and
razed to the ground two years later.
Two generations later,
Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...
ordered the construction of
Dadu (or Daidu to the Mongols, commonly known as
Khanbaliq
Khanbaliq or Dadu of Yuan () was the winter capital of the Yuan dynasty of China in what is now Beijing, also the capital of the People's Republic of China today. It was located at the center of modern Beijing. The Secretariat directly administ ...
), a new capital for his
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
to the northeast of the Zhongdu ruins. The construction took from 1264 to 1293,
but greatly enhanced the status of a city on the northern fringe of
China proper
China proper, Inner China, or the Eighteen Provinces is a term used by some Western writers in reference to the "core" regions of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China. This term is used to express a distinction between the "core" regions popu ...
. The city was centered on the
Drum Tower slightly to the north of modern Beijing and stretched from the present-day
Chang'an Avenue
250px, Chang'an Avenue hosts military parades. Here are 1999 National Day parade.">50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China">1999 National Day parade.
Chang'an Avenue (), literally "Eternal Peace Street", is a major thoroughfare in ...
to the northern part of
Line 10 subway. Remnants of the Yuan
rammed earth
Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method.
...
wall still stand and are known as the Tucheng.
Ming dynasty
![BeijingWatchTower](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/BeijingWatchTower.jpg)
In 1368, soon after declaring the new
Hongwu era
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts i ...
of the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
, the
rebel
A rebel is a participant in a rebellion.
Rebel or rebels may also refer to:
People
* Rebel (given name)
* Rebel (surname)
* Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution
* American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; s ...
leader
Zhu Yuanzhang
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...
captured Dadu/Khanbaliq and razed the Yuan palaces to the ground.
[Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. ''The Cambridge Illustrated History of China''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ] Since the
Yuan continued to occupy
Shangdu
Shangdu (, ), also known as Xanadu (; Mongolian: ''Šandu''), was the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty of China before Kublai decided to move his throne to the former Jin dynasty capital of Zhōngdū () which was renamed Khanbaliq ( presen ...
and
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
, Dadu was used to supply the Ming military garrisons in the area and renamed Beiping (
Wade–Giles
Wade–Giles () is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert A. Giles's '' Chinese–English Dictionary'' of ...
: Peip'ing, "Northern Peace"). Under the Hongwu Emperor's feudal policies, Beiping was given to his son
Zhu Di
The Yongle Emperor (; pronounced ; 2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di (), was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424.
Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dyna ...
, who was created "
Prince of Yan
Prince or King of Yan () was a Chinese feudal title referring to the ancient Chinese State of Yan and to its fiefs including the capital Yanjing (located within modern Beijing).
Typically, the title is translated as "King of Yan" for rulers prio ...
".
![Beijings layout genom historien](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Beijings_layout_genom_historien.jpg)
The early death of
Zhu Yuanzhang
The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.
As famine, plagues and peasant revolts in ...
's heir led to a
succession struggle upon his death, one that ended with the victory of
Zhu Di
The Yongle Emperor (; pronounced ; 2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di (), was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424.
Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dyna ...
and the declaration of the new
Yongle era
The Yongle Emperor (; pronounced ; 2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di (), was the third List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424.
Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu ...
. Since his harsh treatment of the Ming capital
Yingtian (modern
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
) alienated many there, he established his fief as a new co-capital. The city of
Beiping
"Beijing" is from pinyin ''Běijīng,'' which is romanized from , the Chinese name for this city. The pinyin system of transliteration was approved by the Chinese government in 1958, but little used until 1979. It was gradually adopted by various ...
became Beijing ("Northern Capital") or
Shuntian in 1403.
The construction of the new imperial residence, the
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...
, took from 1406 to 1420;
this period was also responsible for several other of the modern city's major attractions, such as the
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperor of China, Emperors of the Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties for ...
and
Tian'anmen
The Tiananmen (also Tian'anmen (天安门), Tienanmen, T’ien-an Men; ), or the Gate of Heaven-Sent Pacification, is a monumental gate in the city center of Beijing, China, the front gate of the Imperial City of Beijing, located near the ci ...
. On 28 October 1420, the city was officially designated the capital of the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
in the same year that the Forbidden City was completed.
Beijing became the empire's primary capital, and Yingtian, also called
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
("Southern Capital"), became the co-capital. (A 1425 order by Zhu Di's son, the
Hongxi Emperor
The Hongxi Emperor (16 August 1378 – 29 May 1425), personal name Zhu Gaochi (朱高熾), was the fourth Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1424 to 1425. He succeeded his father, the Yongle Emperor, in 1424. His era name "Hongxi" means ...
, to return the primary capital to Nanjing was never carried out: he died, probably of a heart attack, the next month. He was buried, like almost every Ming emperor to follow him, in an
elaborate necropolis to Beijing's north.)
By the 15th century, Beijing had essentially taken its current shape. The
Ming city wall continued to serve until modern times, when it was pulled down and the
2nd Ring Road
The 2nd Ring Road () is the innermost ring road highway which encircles the city center of Beijing, People's Republic of China. (The first ring road had been a circular tram route.)
The ring road can be divided into two parts: the original ring ...
was built in its place. It is generally believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world for most of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The
first known church was constructed by
Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in 1652 at the former site of
Matteo Ricci
Matteo Ricci, SJ (; la, Mattheus Riccius; 6 October 1552 – 11 May 1610), was an Italians, Italian Society of Jesus, Jesuit Priesthood in the Catholic Church, priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions. He create ...
's chapel; the modern
Nantang Cathedral was later built upon the same site.
The capture of Beijing by
Li Zicheng
Li Zicheng (22 September 1606 – 1645), born Li Hongji, also known by the nickname, Dashing King, was a Chinese peasant rebel leader who overthrew the Ming dynasty in 1644 and ruled over northern China briefly as the emperor of the short-li ...
's peasant army in 1644 ended the dynasty, but he and his
Shun court abandoned the city without a fight when the
Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
army of Prince
Dorgon
Dorgon (, ; 17 November 1612 – 31 December 1650), was a Manchu prince and regent of the early Qing dynasty. Born in the House of Aisin-Gioro as the 14th son of Nurhaci (the founder of the Later Jin dynasty, predecessor of the Qing dynasty) ...
arrived 40 days later.
Qing dynasty
Dorgon
Dorgon (, ; 17 November 1612 – 31 December 1650), was a Manchu prince and regent of the early Qing dynasty. Born in the House of Aisin-Gioro as the 14th son of Nurhaci (the founder of the Later Jin dynasty, predecessor of the Qing dynasty) ...
established the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
as a direct successor of the Ming (delegitimising
Li Zicheng
Li Zicheng (22 September 1606 – 1645), born Li Hongji, also known by the nickname, Dashing King, was a Chinese peasant rebel leader who overthrew the Ming dynasty in 1644 and ruled over northern China briefly as the emperor of the short-li ...
and his followers)
and Beijing became China's sole capital. The Qing emperors made some modifications to the Imperial residence but, in large part, the Ming buildings and the general layout remained unchanged. Facilities for Manchu worship were introduced, but the Qing also continued the traditional state rituals. Signage was bilingual or Chinese. This early Qing Beijing later formed the setting for the
Chinese novel ''
Dream of the Red Chamber
''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known for ...
''. Northwest of the city, Qing emperors built several large palatial gardens including the
Old Summer Palace
The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. I ...
and the
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarter ...
.
![Hata-men Gate](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Hata-men_Gate.jpg)
During the
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire and the French Emp ...
, Anglo-French forces captured the outskirts of the city, looting and burning the
Old Summer Palace
The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. I ...
in 1860. Under the
Convention of Peking
The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amon ...
ending that war, Western powers for the first time secured the right to establish
permanent diplomatic presences within the city. From 14 to 15 August 1900 the
Battle of Peking was fought. This battle was part of the
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...
.
The attempt by the
Boxers to eradicate this presence, as well as
Chinese Christian
Christianity in China has been present since at least the 3rd century, and it has gained a significant amount of influence during the last 200 years.
While Christianity may have existed in China before the 3rd century, evidence of its existe ...
converts, led to Beijing's reoccupation by eight
foreign powers. During the fighting, several important structures were destroyed, including the
Hanlin Academy
The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an.
Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed sec ...
and the (new)
Summer Palace
The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarter ...
.
A
peace agreement
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surren ...
was concluded between the
Eight-Nation Alliance
The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, then besieged by the popular Boxer militia, who were determined to remove fo ...
and representatives of the Chinese government
Li Hung-chang and
Prince Ching on 7 September 1901. The treaty required China to pay an indemnity of US$335 million (over US$4 billion in current dollars) plus interest over a period of 39 years. Also required was the execution or exile of government supporters of the Boxers and the destruction of Chinese forts and other defenses in much of northern China. Ten days after the treaty was signed the foreign armies left Peking, although legation guards would remain there until
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
With the treaty signed the
Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu people, Manchu Nara (clan)#Yehe Nara, Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese nob ...
returned to Peking from her "tour of inspection" on 7 January 1902 and the rule of the
Qing
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...
dynasty over China was restored, albeit much weakened by the defeat it had suffered in the Boxer Rebellion and by the indemnity and stipulations of the peace treaty. The Dowager died in 1908 and the dynasty imploded in 1911.
Republic of China
![Chiang KaiShek Portrait Tiananmen Beijing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Chiang_KaiShek_Portrait_Tiananmen_Beijing.jpg)
The fomenters of the
Xinhai Revolution
The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...
of 1911 sought to replace Qing rule with a republic and leaders like
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen (; also known by several other names; 12 November 1866 – 12 March 1925)Singtao daily. Saturday edition. 23 October 2010. section A18. Sun Yat-sen Xinhai revolution 100th anniversary edition . was a Chinese politician who serve ...
originally intended to return the capital to
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
. After the Qing general
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai (; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty and eventually ended the Qing dynasty rule of China in 1912, later becoming the Emperor of China. H ...
forced the abdication of the last Qing emperor and ensured the success of the revolution, the revolutionaries accepted him as president of the new
Republic of China
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...
. Yuan maintained his capital at Beijing and quickly consolidated power, declaring himself emperor in 1915. His death less than a year later left China under the control of the warlords commanding the regional armies. Following the success of the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
's
Northern Expedition
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...
, the capital was formally moved to
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
in 1928. On 28 June the same year, Beijing's name was returned to Beiping (written at the time as "Peiping").
On 7 July 1937, the 29th Army and the Japanese army in China exchanged fire at the
Marco Polo Bridge
The Marco Polo Bridge or Lugou Bridge () is a stone bridge located 15 km southwest of Beijing's city center in the Fengtai District. It bridges the Yongding River, a major tributary of Hai River. Situated at the eastern end of the bridge ...
near the
Wanping Fortress
Wanping Fortress, also known as Wanping Castle (), is a Ming Dynasty fortress or "walled city" in Fengtai District, Beijing. It was erected in 1638–1640, with the purpose of defending Beijing against Li Zicheng and the peasant uprising.
From ...
southwest of the city. The
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident () or the July 7 Incident (), was a July 1937 battle between China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army.
Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria ...
triggered the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
,
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
as it is known in China. During the war,
Beijing fell to Japan on 29 July 1937 and was made the seat of the
Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a
puppet state
A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its o ...
that ruled the ethnic-Chinese portions of Japanese-occupied
northern China
Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climate ...
. This government was later merged into the larger
Wang Jingwei government
The Wang Jingwei regime or the Wang Ching-wei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China ( zh , t = 中華民國國民政府 , p = Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ ), the government of the pup ...
based in Nanjing.
People's Republic of China
![PRCFounding](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/PRCFounding.jpg)
In the final phases of the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
, the
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...
seized control of the city peacefully on 31 January 1949 in the course of the
Pingjin Campaign. On 1 October that year,
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
announced the creation of the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
from atop
Tian'anmen
The Tiananmen (also Tian'anmen (天安门), Tienanmen, T’ien-an Men; ), or the Gate of Heaven-Sent Pacification, is a monumental gate in the city center of Beijing, China, the front gate of the Imperial City of Beijing, located near the ci ...
. He restored the name of the city, as the new capital, to Beijing, a decision that had been reached by the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, zh, 中国人民政治协商会议), also known as the People's PCC (, ) or simply the PCC (), is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of ...
just a few days earlier.
In the 1950s, the city began to expand beyond the old walled city and its surrounding neighborhoods, with heavy industries in
the west
West is a cardinal direction or compass point.
West or The West may also refer to:
Geography and locations
Global context
* The Western world
* Western culture and Western civilization in general
* The Western Bloc, countries allied with NATO ...
and residential neighborhoods in
the north. Many areas of the
Beijing city wall
The Beijing city fortifications were Defensive wall, walls with series of towers and gates constructed in the city of Beijing, China in the early 1400s until they were partially demolished in 1965 for the construction of the 2nd Ring Road and Line ...
were torn down in the 1960s to make way for the construction of the
Beijing Subway
The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 25 lines including 20 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and 2 light rail lines, and 463 stations. The rail network extends acro ...
and the
2nd Ring Road
The 2nd Ring Road () is the innermost ring road highway which encircles the city center of Beijing, People's Republic of China. (The first ring road had been a circular tram route.)
The ring road can be divided into two parts: the original ring ...
.
![Beijing Olympics 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/Beijing_Olympics_2008.jpg)
During the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...
from 1966 to 1976, the
Red Guard
Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
movement began in Beijing and the city's government fell victim to one of the first purges. By the autumn of 1966, all city schools were shut down and over a million Red Guards from across the country gathered in Beijing for eight rallies in Tian'anmen Square with Mao. In April 1976, a large public gathering of Beijing residents against the
Gang of Four
The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...
and the Cultural Revolution in Tiananmen Square
was forcefully suppressed. In October 1976, the Gang was arrested in
Zhongnanhai
Zhongnanhai () is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council of the People' ...
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
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...
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
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (d ...
,
4th
Fourth or the fourth may refer to:
* the ordinal form of the number 4
* ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971
* Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision
* Fourth (music), a musical interval
* ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...
,
5th and
6th Ring Road
The 6th Ring Road () is an expressway ring road in Beijing, China which runs around the city approximately from the center of the city. The 6th Ring Road is approximately long.
The road is numbered G4501 and as such is strictly speaking con ...
s. According to one 2005 newspaper report, the size of newly developed Beijing was one-and-a-half times larger than before.
Wangfujing
Wangfujing () is a shopping street in Beijing, China, located in Dongcheng District, Beijing, Dongcheng District. The majority of the main area is pedestrianised. Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty there have been commercial activities in ...
and
Xidan
Xidan (Chinese: 西 单; Pinyin: Xīdān) is a major traditional commercial area in Beijing, China. It is located in the Xicheng District.
The Xidan commercial district incorporates the Xidan Culture Square, North Xidan Street, as well as many ...
have developed into flourishing shopping districts, while
Zhongguancun
Zhongguancun () is a major technology hub in Haidian District, Beijing, China.
Zhongguancun occupies a band between the northwestern Third Ring Road and the northwestern Fourth Ring Road, in the northwestern part of Beijing. Zhongguancun is ...
has become a major center of electronics in China. In recent years, the expansion of Beijing has also brought to the forefront some problems of urbanization, such as
heavy traffic
''Heavy Traffic'' is a 1973 American live-action/animated drama film written and directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film, which begins, ends, and occasionally combines with live-action, explores the often surreal fantasies of a young New York City ...
,
poor air quality, the loss of historic neighborhoods, and a significant influx of migrant workers from less-developed
rural area
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...
s of the country. Beijing has also been the location of many significant events in recent Chinese history, principally the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing during 1989. In what is known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, or in Chinese the June Fourth ...
.
[Picture Power:Tiananmen Standoff](_blank)
BBC News. The city has also hosted major international events, including the
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
and the
2015 World Championships in Athletics
The 2015 IAAF World Championships ( zh, 第十五届世界田径锦标赛), the fifteenth edition of the IAAF World Championships, were held from 22 to 30 August at the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Forty-three nations won medals, 144 of ...
, and the
2022 Winter Olympics
The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...
, making it the first city to ever host both Winter and Summer Olympics.
Geography
![Large Beijing Landsat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Large_Beijing_Landsat.jpg)
Beijing is situated at the northern tip of the roughly triangular
North China Plain
The North China Plain or Huang-Huai-Hai Plain () is a large-scale downfaulted rift basin formed in the late Paleogene and Neogene and then modified by the deposits of the Yellow River. It is the largest alluvial plain of China. The plain is bord ...
, 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 District
Yanqing District (), formerly known as Yanqing County before 2015, is a District (China), district of the municipality of Beijing located northwest of the city proper of Beijing. The district consists of 3 Subdistrict (China), subdistricts, 11 ...
and
Huairou District
Huairou District () is situated in northern Beijing about from the city center (about a 1½ to 2 hour drive).
History
In 1995 during the United Nation's 4th World's Women Conference in Beijing, the Civil Society community was forced to meet in t ...
, are dominated by the
Jundu Mountains
Jundu Mountains () is a mountain range north of Beijing in China. Jundu Mountains represent the west part of the Yan Mountains. The Great Wall of China passes through Jundu Mountains with famous sections as Badaling
Badaling () is the site ...
, while the western part is framed by ''Xishan'' or the
Western Hills
The Western Hills () are the hills and mountains in the western part of Beijing.
Geography
Being an extension of the Taihang mountain range from the Hebei Province, the Western Hills cover approximately 17% of the Beijing municipality, inc ...
. The
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...
across the northern part of Beijing Municipality was built on the rugged topography to defend against nomadic incursions from the steppes.
Mount Dongling, in the Western Hills and on the border with
Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...
, is the municipality's highest point, with an altitude of .
Major rivers flowing through the municipality, including the
Chaobai
The Chaobai River () is a river in northern China. The river is 458 km long and flows from the confluence of the Chao and Bai Rivers at the Miyun Reservoir in Beijing Municipality through Hebei Province and into the Grand Canal of the Hai Ri ...
,
Yongding,
Juma, are all tributaries in the
Hai River
The Hai River (海河, lit. "Sea River"), also known as the Peiho, ("White River"), or Hai Ho, is a Chinese river connecting Beijing to Tianjin and the Bohai Sea.
The Hai River at Tianjin is formed by the confluence of five watercourses: the S ...
system, and flow in a southeasterly direction. The Miyun Reservoir, on the upper reaches of the Chaobai River, is the largest reservoir within the municipality. Beijing is also the northern terminus of the
Grand Canal to
Hangzhou
Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...
, which was built over 1,400 years ago as a transportation route, and the
South–North Water Transfer Project
The South–North Water Transfer Project, also translated as the South-to-North Water Diversion Project () is a multi-decade infrastructure mega-project in China. Ultimately it aims to channel 44.8 billion cubic meters of fresh water annually fro ...
, constructed in the past decade to bring water from the
Yangtze River
The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...
basin.
The urban area of Beijing, on the plains in the south-central of the municipality with elevation of , occupies a relatively small but expanding portion of the municipality's area. The city spreads out in concentric
ring roads
A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...
. The
Second Ring Road
The 2nd Ring Road () is the innermost ring road highway which encircles the city center of Beijing, People's Republic of China. (The first ring road had been a circular tram route.)
The ring road can be divided into two parts: the original rin ...
traces the
old city walls and the
Sixth Ring Road
The 6th Ring Road () is an expressway ring road in Beijing, China which runs around the city approximately from the center of the city. The 6th Ring Road is approximately long.
The road is numbered G4501 and as such is strictly speaking con ...
connects satellite towns in the surrounding suburbs.
Tian'anmen
The Tiananmen (also Tian'anmen (天安门), Tienanmen, T’ien-an Men; ), or the Gate of Heaven-Sent Pacification, is a monumental gate in the city center of Beijing, China, the front gate of the Imperial City of Beijing, located near the ci ...
and
Tian'anmen Square
Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananmen ...
are at the center of Beijing, directly to the south of the
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...
, the former residence of the emperors of China. To the west of Tian'anmen is
Zhongnanhai
Zhongnanhai () is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council of the People' ...
, the residence of China's current leaders.
Chang'an Avenue
250px, Chang'an Avenue hosts military parades. Here are 1999 National Day parade.">50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China">1999 National Day parade.
Chang'an Avenue (), literally "Eternal Peace Street", is a major thoroughfare in ...
, which cuts between Tiananmen and the Square, forms the city's main east–west axis.
Cityscape
Architecture
Three styles of architecture are predominant in urban Beijing. First, there is the traditional architecture of imperial China, perhaps best exemplified by the massive
Tian'anmen
The Tiananmen (also Tian'anmen (天安门), Tienanmen, T’ien-an Men; ), or the Gate of Heaven-Sent Pacification, is a monumental gate in the city center of Beijing, China, the front gate of the Imperial City of Beijing, located near the ci ...
(Gate of Heavenly Peace), which remains the People's Republic of China's trademark edifice, the
Forbidden City
The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...
, the
Imperial Ancestral Temple
The Imperial Ancestral Temple, or Taimiao () of Beijing, is a historic site in the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City, just outside the Forbidden City, where during both the Ming Dynasty, Ming and Qing Dynasty, Qing Dynasties, sacrificial cere ...
and the
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperor of China, Emperors of the Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties for ...
. Next, there is what is sometimes referred to as the "Sino-Sov" style, with structures tending to be boxy and sometimes poorly constructed, which were built between the 1950s and the 1970s. Finally, there are much more modern architectural forms, most noticeably in the area of the
Beijing CBD
The Beijing central business district, or Beijing CBD (), is a central business district and the primary area for finance, media, and business services in Beijing, China.
Beijing CBD occupies 3.99 km2 of the Chaoyang District on the e ...
in east Beijing such as the new
CCTV Headquarters
The CCTV Headquarters serves as the headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) formerly located at the old China Central Television Building some to the west. Feted by architecture critics as perhaps "the greatest work of architectu ...
, in addition to buildings in other locations around the city such as the
Beijing National Stadium
The National Stadium (), also known as the Bird's Nest (), is an 80,000-capacity stadium in Beijing. The stadium was jointly designed by architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron from Basel-based architecture team Herzog & de Meuron, p ...
and
National Center for the Performing Arts.
![Beijing before communism, 1940-1948](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Beijing_before_communism%2C_1940-1948.jpg)
Since 2007, buildings in Beijing have received the
CTBUH Skyscraper Award
The Tall Building Awards or CTBUH Awards recognizes projects and individuals who have made an extraordinary contribution to the advancement of tall buildings and urban environment, as well as achieving sustainability at the highest and broadest le ...
for best overall tall building twice, for the
Linked Hybrid
Linked Hybrid () is a building complex built in Beijing, China designed by Steven Holl Architects. It is recognized for its environmental design and uses geo-thermal wells for cooling and heating. Linked Hybrid has won several awards such as the B ...
building in 2009 and the
CCTV Headquarters
The CCTV Headquarters serves as the headquarters for China Central Television (CCTV) formerly located at the old China Central Television Building some to the west. Feted by architecture critics as perhaps "the greatest work of architectu ...
in 2013. The CTBUH Skyscraper award for best tall overall building is given to only one building around the world every year.
In the early 21st century, Beijing has witnessed tremendous growth of new building constructions, exhibiting various modern styles from international designers, most pronounced in the CBD region. A mixture of both 1950s design and
neofuturistic
Neo-futurism is a late-20th to early-21st-century movement in the arts, design, and architecture.
Described as an avant-garde movement, as well as a futuristic rethinking of the thought behind aesthetics and functionality of design in growing ...
style of architecture can be seen at the
798 Art Zone
798 Art Zone (), or Dashanzi Art District, is a complex of 50-year-old decommissioned military factory buildings boasting a unique architectural style that houses a thriving artistic community in Dashanzi, Chaoyang District, Beijing. The area is ...
, which mixes the old with the new. Beijing's tallest building is the 528-meter
China Zun
CITIC Tower (otherwise known as China Zun) is a supertall skyscraper in the Central Business District of Beijing. The 109-story, building is the tallest in the city, surpassing the China World Trade Center Tower III by 190 metres. On August ...
.
![Doujiao Hutong](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Doujiao_Hutong.jpg)
Beijing is famous for its ''
siheyuan
A ''siheyuan'' (; IPA: ɹ̩̂.xɤ̌.ɥɛ̂n is a historical type of residence that was commonly found throughout China, most famously in Beijing and rural Shanxi. Throughout Chinese history, the siheyuan composition was the basic pattern used ...
s'', a type of residence where a common courtyard is shared by the surrounding buildings. Among the more grand examples are the
Prince Gong Mansion
Prince Gong's Mansion, also known as the Prince Kung Mansion, is a museum and tourist attraction located in Xicheng District, Beijing, just north of the Shichahai, Shichahai Lake. It consists of large siheyuan-style mansions and Chinese gar ...
and
Residence of Soong Ching-ling. These courtyards are usually connected by alleys called ''
hutong
''Hutong'' () are a type of narrow street or alley commonly associated with northern Chinese cities, especially Beijing.
In Beijing, hutongs are alleys formed by lines of ''siheyuan'', traditional courtyard residences. Many neighbourhoods wer ...
s''. The ''hutongs'' are generally straight and run east to west so that doorways face north and south for good
Feng Shui. They vary in width; some are so narrow only a few pedestrians can pass through at a time. Once ubiquitous in Beijing, ''siheyuans'' and ''hutongs'' are rapidly disappearing, as entire city blocks of ''hutongs'' are replaced by high-rise buildings. Residents of the ''hutongs'' are entitled to live in the new buildings in apartments of at least the same size as their former residences. Many complain, however, that the traditional sense of community and street life of the ''hutongs'' cannot be replaced, and these properties are often government owned.
Climate
![Beijing average annual temperatures 1970 to 2019](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Beijing_average_annual_temperatures_1970_to_2019.jpg)
Beijing has a monsoon-influenced
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
: ''Dwa''), bordering on a
cold semi-arid climate
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
: ''BSk''), characterized by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian
monsoon
A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
, and brief but cold, dry winters that reflect the influence of the vast
Siberian anticyclone
The Siberian High (also Siberian Anticyclone; russian: Азиатский антициклон (''Aziatsky antitsiklon'')) is a massive collection of cold dry air that accumulates in the northeastern part of Eurasia from September until April. It ...
.
Spring can bear witness to sandstorms blowing in from the
Gobi Desert
The Gobi Desert (Chinese: 戈壁 (沙漠), Mongolian: Говь (ᠭᠣᠪᠢ)) () is a large desert or brushland region in East Asia, and is the sixth largest desert in the world.
Geography
The Gobi measures from southwest to northeast an ...
across the
Mongolian steppe
Mongolian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Mongolia, a country in Asia
* Mongolian people, or Mongols
* Mongolia (1911–24), the government of Mongolia, 1911–1919 and 1921–1924
* Mongolian language
* Mongolian alphabet
* Mong ...
, accompanied by rapidly warming, but generally dry, conditions. Autumn, similar to spring, is a season of transition and minimal precipitation. The monthly daily average temperature in January is , while in July it is .
Precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
averages around annually, with close to three-quarters of that total falling from June to August. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 47% in July to 65% in January and February, the city receives 2,671 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from on 22 February 1966 to on 24 July 1999 (unofficial record of was set on 15 June 1942).
[
]
Environmental issues
Beijing has a long history of environmental problems
Environmental issues are effects of human activity on the biophysical environment, most often of which are harmful effects that cause environmental degradation. Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment on th ...
. Between 2000 and 2009 Beijing's urban extent quadrupled, which not only strongly increased the extent of anthropogenic emissions, but also changed the meteorological situation fundamentally, even if emissions
Emission may refer to:
Chemical products
* Emission of air pollutants, notably:
**Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue
** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion
** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...
of human society are not included. For example, surface albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...
, wind speed and humidity
Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present.
Humidity depe ...
near the surface were decreased, whereas ground and near-surface air temperature
Atmospheric temperature is a measure of temperature at different levels of the Earth's atmosphere. It is governed by many factors, including insolation, incoming solar radiation, humidity and altitude. When discussing surface air temperature, the ...
s, vertical air dilution and ozone
Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...
levels were increased. Because of the combined factors of urbanization and pollution caused by burning of fossil fuel
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels m ...
, Beijing is often affected by serious environmental problems, which lead to health
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
issues of many inhabitants. In 2013 heavy smog
Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words ''smoke'' and '' fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then inte ...
struck Beijing and most parts of northern China, impacting a total of 600 million people. After this "pollution shock" air pollution
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
became an important economic and social concern in China. After that the government of Beijing announced measures to reduce air pollution, for example by lowering the share of coal from 24% in 2012 to 10% in 2017, while the national government ordered heavily polluting vehicles to be removed from 2015 to 2017 and increased its efforts to transition the energy system to clean sources.
Air quality
Joint research between American and Chinese researchers in 2006 concluded that much of the city's pollution comes from surrounding cities and provinces. On average 35–60% of the ozone
Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...
can be traced to sources outside the city. Shandong
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
Province and Tianjin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...
Municipality have a "significant influence on Beijing's air quality", partly due to the prevailing south/southeasterly flow during the summer and the mountains to the north and northwest.
In preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
and to fulfill promises to clean up the city's air, nearly US$17 billion was spent. Beijing implemented a number of air improvement schemes for the duration of the Games, including halting work at all construction sites, closing many factories in Beijing permanently, temporarily shutting industry in neighboring regions, closing some gas stations, and cutting motor traffic by half by limiting drivers to odd or even days (based on their license plate numbers), reducing bus and subway fares, opening new subway lines, and banning high-emission vehicles. The city further assembled 3,800 natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
-powered buses, one of the largest fleets in the world.[ Beijing became the first city in China to require the Chinese equivalent to the Euro 4 ]emission standard
Emission standards are the legal requirements governing air pollutants released into the atmosphere. Emission standards set quantitative limits on the permissible amount of specific air pollutants that may be released from specific sources over ...
.
Coal burning accounts for about 40% of the PM 2.5
Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspension (chemistry), suspen ...
in Beijing and is also the chief source of nitrogen and sulphur dioxide.[James West, ''Mother Jones''](_blank)
. 18 January 2013. Since 2012, the city has been converting coal-fired power stations
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many pow ...
to burn natural gas["Beijing to switch from coal to gas to go green". ''China Daily''](_blank)
. 8 March 2012. and aims to cap annual coal consumption at 20 million tons. In 2011, the city burned 26.3 million tons of coal, 73% of which for heating and power generation and the remainder for industry. Much of the city's air pollutants are emitted by neighboring regions. Coal consumption in neighboring Tianjin is expected to increase from 48 to 63 million tons from 2011 to 2015.[Li Jing, "Beijing's air quality will worsen without coal control, Greenpeace says". ''South China Morning Post''. 5 February 2013](_blank)
. Hebei Province burned over 300 million tons of coal in 2011, more than all of Germany, of which only 30% were used for power generation and a considerable portion for steel and cement making. Power plants in the coal-mining regions of Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, where coal consumption has tripled since 2000, and Shandong also contribute to air pollution in Beijing. Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei and Inner Mongolia, respectively rank from first to fourth, among Chinese provinces by coal consumption. There were four major coal-fired power plants in the city to provide electricity as well as heating during the winter. The first one (Gaojing Thermal Power Plant) was shut down in 2014. Another two were shut in March 2015. The last one (Huaneng Thermal Power Plant) would be shut in 2016. Between 2013 and 2017, the city planned to reduce 13 million tons of coal consumption and cap coal consumption to 15 million tons in 2015.[
The government sometimes uses ]cloud-seeding
Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that aims to change the amount or type of Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation that falls from clouds by dispersing substances into the air that serve as Cloud condensation nuclei, cloud cond ...
measures to increase the likelihood of rain showers in the region to clear the air prior to large events, such as prior to the 60th anniversary parade in 2009 as well as to combat drought conditions in the area. More recently, however, the government has increased its usage of such measures as closing factories temporarily and implementing greater restrictions for cars on the road, as in the case of "APEC blue
APEC blue () refers to the rare blue sky in Beijing during APEC China 2014 due to emission reduction campaign directed by Chinese government. Because of its transience, the new phrase "APEC blue" also refers to something wonderful but also fleeting ...
" and "parade blue," short periods during and immediately preceding the APEC China 2014
The APEC China 2014 was the 22nd annual gathering of APEC leaders. It was held in Yanqi Lake (), Huairou District, Beijing on 10–12, November 2014.
Attendees
Prior to a two plane tragedies of Malaysia Airlines flight between MH370 and MH17, th ...
and the 2015 China Victory Day Parade
The 2015 China Victory Day parade was a military parade held along Chang'an Avenue, Beijing, on 3 September 2015 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day of World War II. The commemoration was the first high-profile military ...
, respectively. During and prior to these events, Beijing's air quality improved dramatically, only to fall back to unhealthy levels shortly after.
Beijing air quality is often poor, especially in winter. In mid-January 2013, Beijing's air quality was measured on top of the city's US embassy at a PM2.5 density of 755 micrograms per cubic meter, which is more than 75 times the safe level established by the WHO
Who or WHO may refer to:
* Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun
* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism
* World Health Organization
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book ''Horton Hear ...
, and went off the US Environmental Protection Agency's air quality index. It was widely reported, originally through a Twitter account, that the category was "crazy bad". This was later changed to "beyond index".
On 8 and 9 December 2015 Beijing had its first smog
Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words ''smoke'' and '' fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then inte ...
alert which shut down a majority of the industry and other commercial businesses in the city. Later in the month another smog "red alert" was issued.
According to Beijing's environmental protection bureau's announcement in November 2016, starting from 2017 highly polluting old cars will be banned from being driven whenever Smog "red alerts" are issued in the city or neighboring regions.
In recent years, there has been measurable reductions in pollutants after the "war on pollution" was declared in 2014, with Beijing seeing a 35% reduction in fine particulates in 2017.
Readings
Due to Beijing's high level of air pollution, there are various readings by different sources on the subject. Daily pollution readings at 27 monitoring stations around the city are reported on the website of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BJEPB). The American Embassy of Beijing also reports hourly fine particulate (PM2.5) and ozone
Ozone (), or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula . It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope , breaking down in the lo ...
levels on Twitter.[ Since the BJEPB and US Embassy measure different pollutants according to different criteria, the pollution levels and the impact to human health reported by the BJEPB are often lower than that reported by the US Embassy.][ (login required)]
The smog is causing harm and danger to the population. The air pollution does directly result in significant impact on the mobility rate of cardiovascular disease and respiratory disease in Beijing. Exposure to large concentrations of polluted air can cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems, emergency room visits, and even death.
Dust storms
Dust from the erosion of deserts in northern and northwestern China results in seasonal dust storm
A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transporte ...
s that plague the city; the Beijing Weather Modification Office
The Beijing Weather Modification Office is a unit of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau tasked with weather control in Beijing, and its surrounding areas, including parts of Hebei and Inner Mongolia.
The Beijing Weather Modification Office form a ...
sometimes artificially induces rainfall to fight such storms and mitigate their effects. In the first four months of 2006 alone, there were no fewer than eight such storms. In April 2002, one dust storm alone dumped nearly 50,000 tons of dust onto the city before moving on to Japan and Korea.
Government
The municipal government is regulated by the local Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
(CCP), led by the Beijing CCP Secretary (). The local CCP issues administrative orders, collects taxes, manages the economy, and directs a standing committee of the Municipal People's Congress in making policy decisions and overseeing the local government.
Government officials include the mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
() and vice-mayor. Numerous bureaus focus on law, public security, and other affairs. Additionally, as the capital of China, Beijing houses all of the important national governmental and political institutions, including the National People's Congress
The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China.
With 2, ...
.
Administrative divisions
Beijing Municipality currently comprises 16 administrative county-level subdivisions including 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
. On 1 July 2010, Chongwen and Xuanwu were merged into Dongcheng and Xicheng, respectively. On 13 November 2015 Miyun
Miyun District () is situated in northeast Beijing. It has an area of and a population of 460,800 (2010 Census). Miyun District government seat is located in Gulou Subdistrict.
History
Miyun was one of the places where Warlord Feng Yuxiang s ...
and Yanqing were upgraded to districts.
Towns
Beijing's 16 county-level divisions (districts) are further subdivided into 273 lower third-level administrative units at the township level: 119 towns
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
, 24 townships
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...
, 5 ethnic township
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
s and 125 subdistricts A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district.
Equivalents
* Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language
* Kelurahan, in Indonesia
* Mukim, a township in Brunei, Indon ...
.
Towns within Beijing Municipality but outside the urban area include (but are not limited to):
* Changping Changping or Chang Ping, may refer to:
Transportation
*Changping station (Beijing Subway) (昌平), a subway station on Changping line of Beijing Subway. Located in Beijing.
*Changping line (昌平线), a subway line of Beijing Subway
*Changping r ...
* Huairou
Huairou District () is situated in northern Beijing about from the city center (about a 1½ to 2 hour drive).
History
In 1995 during the United Nation's 4th World's Women Conference in Beijing, the Civil Society community was forced to meet in t ...
* Miyun
Miyun District () is situated in northeast Beijing. It has an area of and a population of 460,800 (2010 Census). Miyun District government seat is located in Gulou Subdistrict.
History
Miyun was one of the places where Warlord Feng Yuxiang s ...
* Liangxiang
Liangxiang () is a township and an area of Beijing, Fangshan District, located 25km southwest of the city center. It borders Gongchen Subdistrict to its north, Changyang Town to its east, Doudian Town to its south, and Yancun Town to its west. ...
* Liulimiao
Liulimiao Town () is a town located on the center of Huairou District, Beijing. It is located at the foot of Yunmeng Mountain of the Yan Mountains
The Yan Mountains, also known by their Chinese name Yanshan, are a major mountain range to the no ...
* Tongzhou
* Yizhuang
* Tiantongyuan
Tiantongyuan () is a suburb in northern Beijing's Changping District. As of April 2008, it was said to have over 400,000 residents. As of 2019, the population of Tiantongyuan had jumped to 700,000, making it the largest Xiaoqu (housing communi ...
* Beiyuan
* Xiaotangshan
Several place names in Beijing end with ''mén'' (), meaning "gate", as they were the locations of gates in the former Beijing city wall
The Beijing city fortifications were Defensive wall, walls with series of towers and gates constructed in the city of Beijing, China in the early 1400s until they were partially demolished in 1965 for the construction of the 2nd Ring Road and Line ...
. Other place names end in ''cūn'' (), meaning "village", as they were originally villages outside the city wall.
Judiciary and procuracy
The judicial system
The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
in Beijing consists of the Supreme People's Court
The Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China (SPC; ) is the highest court of the People's Republic of China. It hears appeals of cases from the high people's courts and is the trial court for cases about matters of national ...
, the highest court in the country, the Beijing Municipal High People's Court, the high people's court
A high people's court or higher people's court (高级人民法院) is the highest local court in the People's Republic of China. In each province, it is subject to the "People's Congress".
According to the ''Organic Law of the People's Courts ...
of the municipality, three intermediate people's courts, one intermediate railway transport court, 14 basic people's court
A primary people's court () is a lowest level court in the Courts of General Jurisdiction in the People's Republic of China. According to the ''Organic Law of the People's Courts of the People's Republic of China'', the basic people's courts hand ...
(one for each of the municipality's districts and counties), and one basic railway transport court. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court in Shijingshan oversees the basic courts of Haidian, Shijingshan, Mentougou, Changping and Yanqing. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Fengtai oversees the basic courts of Dongcheng, Xicheng, Fengtai, Fangshan and Daxing. The Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People's Court in Laiguangying, is the newest of the three intermediate people's courts and opened on 21 August 2013. It oversees the district courts of Chaoyang, Tongzhou, Shunyi, Huairou, Pinggu and Miyun. Each court in Beijing has a corresponding people's procuratorate
The Supreme People's Procuratorate () is the highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and investigation in the People's Republic of China. Conceived initially in 1949 as the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office, the agency was r ...
.
Economy
, Beijing's nominal GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is often ...
was US$458 billion ( CN¥3.0 trillion), about 3.45% of the country's GDP and ranked 12th
12 (twelve) is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13. Twelve is a superior highly composite number, divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.
It is the number of years required for an orbital period of Jupiter. It is central to many systems ...
among province-level administrative units; its nominal GDP per capita was US$21,261 (CN¥140,748) and ranked the 1st in the country.[''Historical GDP of Beijing'' published on Beijing Statistical Yearbook 2017, ALSO se]
Beijing'GDP Revison (Chinese)
(10 October 2017) As of 2021, Beijing's gross regional product
Gross regional product (GRP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a region or subdivision of a country in a period (quarterly or yearly) of time.
A metropolitan area's GRP (gross metropolitan prod ...
s was CN¥4 trillion ($965 billion in GDP PPP
Purchasing power parity (PPP) is the measurement of prices in different countries that uses the prices of specific goods to compare the absolute purchasing power of the countries' currencies. PPP is effectively the ratio of the price of a basket ...
), ranking among the tenth largest metropolitan economies in the world. Beijing's nominal GDP is projected to reach US$1.1 trillion in 2035, ranking among the world's top 10 largest cities (together with Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
and Shenzhen
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
in China) according to a study by Oxford Economics, and its nominal GDP per capita will reach US$45,000 in 2030.
Due to the concentration of state owned enterprises
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the government ...
in the national capital, Beijing in 2013 had more Fortune Global 500
The ''Fortune'' Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by ''Fortune'' magazine.
Methodology
Until 1989, it listed onl ...
Company headquarters than any other city in the world.["Jones Lang LaSalle Research Report – Five years after the Olympics – Growth in Beijing has continued, what to expect next?"](_blank)
August 2013 As of August 2022, Beijing has 54 Fortune Global 500
The ''Fortune'' Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by ''Fortune'' magazine.
Methodology
Until 1989, it listed onl ...
companies, more than Japan (47), the third-place country after China (145) and the United States (124). Beijing has also been described as the "billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...
capital of the world". In 2020, Beijing is the fifth wealthiest city in the world, with a total wealth amounts to $2 trillion. Beijing is classified as an Alpha+ (global first-tier) city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network
The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershi ...
, indicating its influence in the region and worldwide and making it one of the world's Top 10 major cities. In the 2021 Global Financial Centres Index
The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) is a ranking of the competitiveness of financial centres based on over 29,000 financial centre assessments from an online questionnaire together with over 100 indices from organisations such as the World ...
, Beijing was ranked as having the sixth-most competitive financial center in the world and fourth-most competitive in the whole Asia & Oceania region (behind Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore).
As of 2021, Beijing was ranked first globally in terms of "''Global City Competitiveness''" in the ''2020–2021 Global Urban Competitiveness Report'' jointly released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...
(CASS) and the United Nations Programme for Human Settlements (UN-Habitat).
Per-capita GDP is based on mid-year population.
Sector composition
The city has a post-industrial economy
A post-industrial economy is a period of growth within an industrialized economy or nation in which the relative importance of manufacturing reduces and that of services, information, and research grows.
Such economies are often marked by a declin ...
that is dominated by the tertiary sector
The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...
(services), which generated 76.9% of output, followed by the secondary sector
In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in construction. ...
(manufacturing, construction) at 22.2% and the primary sector
The primary sector of the economy includes any industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining.
The primary sector tends to make up a larger portion of the economy in de ...
(agriculture, mining) at 0.8%.
The services sector is broadly diversified with professional services, wholesale and retail, information technology, commercial real estate, scientific research, and residential real estate each contributing at least 6% to the city's economy in 2013.
The single largest sub-sector remains industry, whose share of overall output has shrunk to 18.1% in 2013. The mix of industrial output has changed significantly since 2010 when the city announced that 140 highly-polluting, energy and water resource intensive enterprises would be relocated from the city in five years. The relocation of Capital Steel to neighboring Hebei province had begun in 2005. In 2013, output of automobiles, aerospace products, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and food processing all increased.
In the farmland around Beijing, vegetables and fruits have displaced grain as the primary crops under cultivation. In 2013, the tonnage of vegetable, edible fungus and fruit harvested was over three times that of grain. In 2013, overall acreage under cultivation shrank along with most categories of produce as more land was reforested for environmental reasons.
Economic zones
In 2006, the city government identified six high-end economic output zones around Beijing as the primary engines for local economic growth. In 2012, the six zones produced 43.3% of the city's GDP, up from 36.5% in 2007.
The six zones are:
# Zhongguancun
Zhongguancun () is a major technology hub in Haidian District, Beijing, China.
Zhongguancun occupies a band between the northwestern Third Ring Road and the northwestern Fourth Ring Road, in the northwestern part of Beijing. Zhongguancun is ...
, China's silicon village in Haidian District northwest of the city, is home to both established and start-up tech companies. In the first two quarters of 2014, 9,895 companies registered in the six zones, among which 6,150 were based in Zhongguancun. Zhongguancun is also the center of Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang Hi-Tech Industrial Belt
Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang Hi-Tech Industrial Belt (Jing-Jin-Shi Hi-Tech Industrial Belt, ), including four main national Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zones in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang and Baoding, i.e. Zhongguancun, Tianjin Binhai Hi-Tec ...
.
# Beijing Financial Street, in Xicheng District on the west side of the city between Fuxingmen and Fuchengmen, is lined with headquarters of large state banks and insurance companies. The country's financial regulatory agencies including the People's Bank of China, central bank, China Banking Regulatory Commission, bank regulator, China Securities Regulatory Commission, securities regulator, and State Administration of Foreign Exchange, foreign exchange authority are located in the neighborhood.
# Beijing CBD, Beijing Central Business District (CBD), is actually located to the east of downtown, near the embassies along the eastern Third Ring Road between Jianguomenwai and Chaoyangmenwai. The CBD is home to most of the List of tallest buildings in Beijing, city's skyscraper office buildings. Most of the city's foreign companies and professional service firms are based in the CBD.
# Beijing Economic and Technological Development Area, better known as Yizhuang, is an industrial park the straddles the southern Fifth Ring Road in Daxing District. It has attracted pharmaceutical, information technology, and materials engineering companies.
# Beijing Airport Economic Zone was created in 1993 and surrounds the Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport is one of two international airports serving Beijing, the other one being Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX). It is located northeast of Beijing's city center, in an exclave of Chaoyang District ...
in Shunyi District northeast of the city. In addition to logistics, airline services, and trading firms, this zone is also home to Beijing's automobile assembly plants.
# Beijing Olympic Center Zone surrounds the Olympic Green due north of downtown and is developing into an entertainment, sports, tourism and business convention center.
Shijingshan, on the western outskirts of the city, is a traditional heavy industrial base for steel-making. Chemical plants are concentrated in the far eastern suburbs.
Less legitimate enterprises also exist. Urban Beijing is known for being a center of Copyright infringement, infringed goods; anything from the latest designer clothing to DVDs can be found in markets all over the city, often marketed to expatriates and international visitors.
Demographics
In 2013, Beijing had a total population of 21.148 million within the municipality, of which 18.251 million resided in urban districts or suburban townships and 2.897 million lived in rural villages. The encompassing metropolitan area was estimated by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) to have, , a population of 24.9 million.[Linked from the OEC]
here
Within China, the city ranked List of cities in China by population, second in urban population after Shanghai and the Direct-controlled municipalities of China, third in municipal population after Shanghai and Chongqing. Beijing also ranks among the most populous cities in the world, a distinction the city has held for much of the past 800 years, especially during the 15th to early 19th centuries when it was List of largest cities throughout history, the largest city in the world.
About 13 million of the city's residents in 2013 had local Hukou system, ''hukou'' permits, which entitles them to permanent residence in Beijing. The remaining 8 million residents had ''hukou'' permits elsewhere and were not eligible to receive some social benefits provided by the Beijing municipal government.
The population increased in 2013 by 455,000 or about 7% from the previous year and continued a decade-long trend of rapid growth. The total population in 2004 was 14.213 million. The population gains are driven largely by migration. The population's rate of natural increase in 2013 was a mere 0.441%, based on a birth rate of 8.93 and a mortality rate of 4.52. The Human sex ratio, gender balance was 51.6% males and 48.4% females.
Working age people account for nearly 80% of the population. Compared to 2004, residents age 0–14 as a proportion of the population dropped from 9.96% to 9.5% in 2013 and residents over the age of 65 declined from 11.12% to 9.2%.[ From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of city residents with at least some college education nearly doubled from 16.8% to 31.5%.][ About 22.2% have some high school education and 31% had reached middle school.][
According to the 2010 census, nearly 96% of Beijing's population are ethnic Han Chinese.][ Of the 800,000 ethnic minority population living in the capital, ]Manchu
The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...
(336,000), Hui people in Beijing, Hui (249,000), Korean people in Beijing, Korean (77,000), Mongol (37,000) and Tujia people, Tujia (24,000) constitute the five largest groups. In addition, there were 8,045 Hong Kong residents, 500 Macau residents, and 7,772 Taiwan residents along with 91,128 registered foreigners living in Beijing. A study by the Beijing Academy of Sciences estimates that in 2010 there were on average 200,000 foreigners living in Beijing on any given day including students, business travellers and tourists that are not counted as registered residents.
In 2017 the Chinese government implemented population controls for Beijing and Shanghai to fight what it called the "big city disease" which includes congestion, pollution, and shortages of education and health care services. From this policy, Beijing's population declined by 20,000 from 2016 to 2017. Some low-income people are being forcibly removed from the city as both legal and illegal housing is being demolished in some high-density residential neighborhoods. The population is being redistributed to Jing-Jin-Ji and Xiong'an New Area, the transfer to the latter expected to include 300,000-500,000 people working in government research, universities, and corporate headquarters.
Education and research
Beijing is a world leading center for scientific and technological innovation and has been ranked the List of cities by scientific output, No.1 city in the world with the largest scientific research output, as tracked by the Nature Index The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries and their scientific output since its introduction in November, 2014. Each year, Nature Index ranks the leading institutions (which can be companies, universities, government agen ...
since 2016. The city is also leading the world with the highest share of articles published in the fields of Physical Sciences, physical sciences, chemistry, and earth and environmental sciences, especially in the United Nations'17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related output.
Beijing has over List of universities and colleges in Beijing, 90 public colleges and universities, which is the largest urban public university system in Asia and the first city in China with most higher education institutions, and it is home to the two best universities (Tsinghua
Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education.
The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Project 985 ...
and Peking
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
) in the whole of Asia-Oceania region and emerging countries with its shared rankings at 16th place in the world by the 2022 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Both are members of the C9 League
The C9 League () is an alliance of nine universities in China, initiated by the Government of China, Chinese Central Government to promote the development and reputation of higher education in China in 2009. Collectively, universities in the C9 ...
, an alliance of elite Chinese universities offering comprehensive and leading education.
Beijing also has the highest number of universities of any city in the country, representing more than one-fifth of Double First Class University Plan, 147 Double First-Class Universities, a national plan to develop elite Chinese universities into world-class institutions by the end of 2050. A number of Beijing's Rankings of universities in China, most prestigious universities consistently rank among the best in the Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...
and the world, including Peking University
Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education.
Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...
, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, China Agricultural University, Minzu University of China, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, University of International Business and Economics (Beijing), University of International Business and Economics, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Central University of Finance and Economics. These universities were selected as "Project 985, 985 universities" or "Project 211, 211 universities" by the Chinese government in order to build world-class universities.
Some of the List of universities and colleges in Beijing, national key universities in Beijing are:
* Beijing Forestry University
* Beijing Jiaotong University
* Beijing University of Technology
* Beijing University of Chinese Medicine
* Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
* Beijing Electronic Science and Technology Institute
* Beijing Foreign Studies University
* Beijing Language and Culture University
* Beijing Sport University
* Central Conservatory of Music
The Central Conservatory of Music () is a prestigious leading public music school of China and a member of Double First Class University Plan and former Project 211. Its campus is in the Xicheng District of Beijing, China, near Fuxingmen Statio ...
* Central Academy of Fine Arts
The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy". It is one of the most selectiv ...
* Central Academy of Drama
The Central Academy of Drama (), abbreviated Zhong Xi (), is a drama school in Beijing, China. It is a Chinese state Double First Class University Plan university identified by the Ministry of Education of China. The school is the first theatre ...
* China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
* China University of Petroleum (Beijing)
* China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing)
* China University of Political Science and Law
* China Foreign Affairs University
* Chinese People's Public Security University
* China Women's University
* China Youth University for Political Sciences
* China Institute of Industrial Relations
* Communication University of China
* North China Electric Power University
* Peking Union Medical College
* University of International Relations
Beijing is also home to several religious institutions, Some of them are listed as follows:
* (中国伊斯兰教经学院)
* (北京伊斯兰教经学院)
* (中国佛学院)
* (中国藏语系高级佛学院)
* National Seminary of Catholic Church in China (中国天主教神哲学院)
The city is a seat of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...
, which has been consistently ranked the No.1 research institute in the world by ''Nature Index The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries and their scientific output since its introduction in November, 2014. Each year, Nature Index ranks the leading institutions (which can be companies, universities, government agen ...
'' since the list's inception in 2014, by Nature Research. Beijing is also a site of Chinese Academy of Engineering
The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE, ) is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for engineering. It was established in 1994 and is an institution of the State Council of China. The CAE and the Chinese Academy of Sciences ...
, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese research institute and think tank. The institution is the premier comprehensive national academic research organization in the People's Republic of China for the study in the fields of ...
and National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The city's compulsory education system is among the best in the world: in 2018, 15-year-old students from Beijing (together with Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, Zhejiang and Jiangsu) outperformed all of the other 78 participating countries in all categories (math, reading, and science) in the Program for International Student Assessment, a worldwide study of academic performance conducted by the OECD.
Culture
People native to urban Beijing speak the Beijing dialect, which belongs to the Mandarin subdivision of Chinese spoken language, spoken Chinese. This speech is the basis for ''putonghua'', the standard spoken language used in mainland China and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore. Rural areas of Beijing Municipality have Jilu Mandarin, their own dialects akin to those of Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing Municipality.
Beijing or Peking opera is a traditional form of Chinese theater well known throughout the nation. Commonly lauded as one of the highest achievements of Chinese culture, Beijing opera is performed through a combination of song, spoken dialogue, and codified action sequences involving gestures, movement, fighting and acrobatics. Much of Beijing opera is carried out in an archaic stage dialect quite different from Modern Standard Chinese and from the modern Beijing dialect.
Beijing cuisine is the local style of cooking. Peking duck is perhaps the best known dish. Fuling jiabing, a traditional Beijing snack food, is a pancake (''bing'') resembling a flat disk with a filling made from ''Fu Ling, fu ling'', a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine. Teahouses are also common in Beijing.
The cloisonné (or ''Jingtailan'', literally "Blue of Jingtai Emperor, Jingtai") metalworking technique and tradition is a Beijing art speciality, and is one of the most revered traditional crafts in China. Cloisonné making requires elaborate and complicated processes which include base-hammering, copper-strip inlay, soldering, enamel-filling, enamel-firing, surface polishing and gilding. Beijing's lacquerware is also well known for its sophisticated and intricate patterns and images carved into its surface, and the various decoration techniques of lacquer include "carved lacquer" and "engraved gold".
Younger residents of Beijing have become more attracted to the nightlife, which has flourished in recent decades, breaking prior cultural traditions that had practically restricted it to the upper class. Today, Houhai, Sanlitun and Wudaokou are Beijing's nightlife hotspots.
In 2012 Beijing was named as City of Design and became part of the Creative Cities Network, UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
Places of interest
At the historical heart of Beijing lies the Forbidden City
The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...
, the enormous palace compound that was the home of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties; the Forbidden City hosts the Palace Museum, which contains imperial collections of Chinese art. Surrounding the Forbidden City are several former imperial gardens, parks and scenic areas, notably Beihai Park, Beihai, Shichahai, Zhongnanhai
Zhongnanhai () is a former imperial garden in the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City, Beijing, adjacent to the Forbidden City; it serves as the central headquarters for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the State Council of the People' ...
, Jingshan Park, Jingshan and Zhongshan Park (Beijing), Zhongshan. These places, particularly Beihai Park, are described as masterpieces of Chinese gardening art, and are tourist destinations of historical importance; in the modern era, Zhongnanhai has also been the political heart of various Chinese governments and regimes and is now the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council. From Tiananmen Square, right across from the Forbidden City, there are several notable sites, such as the Tiananmen, Qianmen, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, the Monument to the People's Heroes, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The Summer Palace
The Summer Palace () is a vast ensemble of lakes, gardens and palaces in Beijing. It was an imperial garden in the Qing dynasty. Inside includes Longevity Hill () Kunming Lake and Seventeen Hole Bridge. It covers an expanse of , three-quarter ...
and the Old Summer Palace
The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. I ...
both lie at the western part of the city; the former, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, contains a comprehensive collection of imperial gardens and palaces that served as the summer retreats for the Qing imperial family.
Among the best known religious sites in the city is the Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperor of China, Emperors of the Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties for ...
(''Tiantan''), located in southeastern Beijing, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties made visits for annual ceremonies of prayers to Heaven for good harvest. In the north of the city is the Temple of Earth (''Ditan''), while the Temple of the Sun (''Ritan'') and the Temple of the Moon (China), Temple of the Moon (''Yuetan'') lie in the eastern and western urban areas respectively. Other well-known temple sites include the Beijing Dongyue Temple, Dongyue Temple, Tanzhe Temple, Miaoying Temple, White Cloud Temple, Yonghe Temple, Fayuan Temple, Wanshou Temple and Big Bell Temple. The city also has its own Beijing Temple of Confucius, Confucius Temple, and a Guozijian (Beijing), Guozijian or Imperial Academy. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, built in 1605, is the oldest Catholic church in Beijing. The Niujie Mosque is the oldest mosque in Beijing, with a history stretching back over a thousand years.
Beijing contains several well-preserved pagodas and stone pagodas, such as the towering Pagoda of Tianning Temple (Beijing), Pagoda of Tianning Temple, which was built during the Liao dynasty from 1100 to 1120, and the Pagoda of Cishou Temple, which was built in 1576 during the Ming dynasty. Historically noteworthy stone bridges include the 12th-century Lugou Bridge, the 17th-century Baliqiao bridge, and the 18th-century Jade Belt Bridge. The Beijing Ancient Observatory displays pre-telescopic spheres dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Fragrant Hills (''Xiangshan'') is a public park that consists of natural landscaped areas as well as traditional and cultural relics. The Beijing Botanical Garden exhibits over 6,000 species of plants, including a variety of trees, bushes and flowers, and an extensive peony garden. The Taoranting Park, Taoranting, Longtan Park, Longtan, Beijing Chaoyang Park, Chaoyang, Haidian Park, Haidian, Milu Yuan and Purple Bamboo Park, Zizhu Yuan parks are some of the notable recreational parks in the city. The Beijing Zoo is a center of zoological research that also contains rare animals from various continents, including the Chinese giant panda.
There are 144 museums and galleries () in the city.[
] In addition to the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City and the National Museum of China, other major museums include the National Art Museum of China, the Capital Museum, the Wanshou Temple, Beijing Art Museum, the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, the Geological Museum of China, the Beijing Museum of Natural History and the Paleozoological Museum of China.
Located at the outskirts of urban Beijing, but within its municipality are the Ming tombs, Thirteen Tombs of the Ming dynasty, the lavish and elaborate burial sites of thirteen Ming emperors, which have been designated as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The archaeological Peking Man
Peking Man (''Homo erectus pekinensis'') is a subspecies of ''Homo erectus, H. erectus'' which inhabited the Zhoukoudian Cave of northern China during the Middle Pleistocene. The first fossil, a tooth, was discovered in 1921, and the Zhoukoudi ...
site at Zhoukoudian
Zhoukoudian Area () is a town and an area located on the east Fangshan District, Beijing, China. It borders Nanjiao and Fozizhuang Townships to its north, Xiangyang, Chengguan and Yingfeng Subdistricts to its east, Shilou and Hangcunhe Towns to ...
is another World Heritage Site within the municipality, containing a wealth of discoveries, among them one of the first specimens of ''Homo erectus
''Homo erectus'' (; meaning "upright man") is an extinct species of archaic human from the Pleistocene, with its earliest occurrence about 2 million years ago. Several human species, such as '' H. heidelbergensis'' and '' H. antecessor' ...
'' and an assemblage of bones of the gigantic hyena ''Pachycrocuta brevirostris''. There are several sections of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...
, most notably Badaling, Jinshanling, Simatai and Mutianyu. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Beijing is the second highest earning tourist city in the world after Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
.
Intangible cultural heritage
The cultural heritage of Beijing is rich and diverse. Starting 2006, the Beijing government started the process of selecting and preserving cultural heritages. Five cultural heritage lists have been published over the years. 288 distinct practices are categorized as cultural heritage. These 288 cultural heritages are further divided into ten categories, namely folk music, folk dance, traditional opera, melodious art, juggling and game, folk art, traditional handicraft, traditional medicine, folk literature and folklore.[http://whlyj.beijing.gov.cn/ggfw/wh/fyml/202010/P020201010563736046358.pdf ][http://whlyj.beijing.gov.cn/ggfw/wh/fyml/202010/P020201010563737848152.pdf ][http://whlyj.beijing.gov.cn/ggfw/wh/fyml/202010/P020201010563739463702.pdf ][http://whlyj.beijing.gov.cn/ggfw/wh/fyml/202010/P020201010563741385357.pdf ][http://whlyj.beijing.gov.cn/ggfw/wh/fyml/202110/P020211026621144096433.pdf ]
* Folk music
** Zhihua Temple music
** Tongzhou Sea shanty, shanty
* Folk dance
** Tongzhou Dragon dance
** Miliangtun Stilts
* Traditional opera
** Kunqu
** Peking opera
* Melodious art
** Xiangsheng
* Acrobatic Performance and game
** Go (game), Weiqi(Go)
** Xiangqi
* Folk art
** Ivory carving
* Traditional handicraft
** Peking duck manufacturing techniques
** Cloisonné manufacturing techniques
* Traditional medicine
** Tong Ren Tang culture
* Folk literature
*
Yongding River legend
* Folklore
** Miaohui
** Lantern Festival
Religion
The religious heritage of Beijing is rich and diverse as Chinese folk religion, Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam and Christianity all have significant historical presence in the city. As the national capital, the city also hosts the State Administration for Religious Affairs and various state-sponsored institutions of the leading religions. In recent decades, foreign residents have brought other religions to the city.[ According to Wang Zhiyun of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2010 there were 2.2 million Buddhists in the city, equal to 11.2% of the total population. According to the Chinese General Social Survey of 2009, Christians constitute 0.78% of the city's population.][China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2009. Report by]
Xiuhua Wang (2015, p. 15)
According to a 2010 survey, Muslims constitute 1.76% of the population of Beijing.[Min Junqing. ''The Present Situation and Characteristics of Contemporary Islam in China''. JISMOR, 8]
2010 Islam by province, p. 29
. Data from: Yang Zongde, ''Study on Current Muslim Population in China'', Jinan Muslim, 2, 2010.
china dictatorship
Chinese folk religion and Taoism
Beijing has many temples dedicated to Chinese gods and immortals, folk religious and communal deities, many of which are being reconstructed or refurbished in the 2000s and 2010s. Yearly sacrifices to the Tian, God of Heaven () at the Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven () is a complex of imperial religious buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperor of China, Emperors of the Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties for ...
have been resumed by Confucianism, Confucian groups in the 2010s.
There are temples dedicated to the worship of the Goddess () in the city, one of them near the Beijing Olympic Village, Olympic Village, and they revolve around a major cult center at Mount Miaofeng. There are also many temples consecrated to the Dragon King, Dragon God, to the Medicine Master (), to Guan Yu, Divus Guan (Guan Yu), to the Fire God (), to the Caishen, Wealth God, temples of the Chenghuangshen, City God, and at least one temple consecrated to the Yellow Emperor, Yellow Deity of the Big Dipper, Chariot axis mundi, Shaft () in Pinggu District. Many of these temples are governed by the Beijing Taoist Association, such as the Huode Zhenjun Temple, Fire God Temple of the Shicha Lake, while many others are not and are governed by popular committees and locals. A great Temple of Xuanyuan Huangdi will be built in Pinggu (possibly as an expansion of the already existing shrine) within 2020, and the temple will feature a statue of the deity which will be amongst the list of tallest statues, tallest in the world.
The national Chinese Taoist Association and Chinese Taoist College have their headquarters at the White Cloud Temple of Quanzhen Taoism, which was founded in 741 and rebuilt numerous times. The Beijing Dongyue Temple outside Chaoyangmen is the largest temple of Zhengyi Taoism in the city. The local Beijing Taoist Association has its headquarters at the Lüzu Temple near Fuxingmen.
Buddhism
11% of the population of Beijing practices East Asian Buddhism. The Buddhist Association of China, the state's supervisory organ overseeing all Buddhist institutions in mainland China, is headquartered in the Guangji Temple (Beijing), Guangji Temple, a temple founded over 800 years ago during the Jin dynasty (1115–1234) in what is now Fuchengmennei (). The Beijing Buddhist Association along with the Buddhist Choir and Orchestra are based in the Guanghua Temple (Beijing), Guanghua Temple, which dates to the Yuan dynasty over 700 years ago. The Buddhist Academy of China and its library are housed in the Fayuan Temple near Caishikou. The Fayuan Temple, which dates to the Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
1300 years ago, is the oldest temple in urban Beijing. The Tongjiao Temple inside Dongzhimen is the city's only Buddhist nunnery.
The Xihuang Temple originally dates to the Liao dynasty
The Liao dynasty (; Khitan: ''Mos Jælud''; ), also known as the Khitan Empire (Khitan: ''Mos diau-d kitai huldʒi gur''), officially the Great Liao (), was an imperial dynasty of China that existed between 916 and 1125, ruled by the Yelü ...
. In 1651, the temple was commissioned by the Shunzhi Emperor, Qing Emperor Shunzhi to host the visit of the 5th Dalai Lama, Fifth Dalai Lama to Beijing. Since then, this temple has hosted the 13th Dalai Lama as well as the Lobsang Palden Yeshe, 6th Panchen Lama, Sixth, Thubten Choekyi Nyima, 9th Panchen Lama, Ninth and Choekyi Gyaltsen, 10th Panchen Lama, Tenth Panchen Lamas.
The largest Tibetan Buddhist Temple in Beijing is the Yonghe Temple, which was decreed by the Qianlong Emperor, Qing Emperor Qianlong in 1744 to serve as the residence and research facility for his Buddhist preceptor of Changkya Rölpé Dorjé, Rölpé Dorjé the third Changkya Khutukhtu, Changkya (or living Buddha of Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
). The Yonghe Temple is so-named because it was the childhood residence of the Yongzheng Emperor, and retains the Chinese glazed roof tile, glazed tiles reserved for imperial palaces. While the "High-level Tibetan Buddhism College of China", China's highest institution college of Tibetan Buddhism, situated near the Yonghe Temple. The Lingguang Temple (Beijing), Lingguang Temple of Badachu in the Western Hills
The Western Hills () are the hills and mountains in the western part of Beijing.
Geography
Being an extension of the Taihang mountain range from the Hebei Province, the Western Hills cover approximately 17% of the Beijing municipality, inc ...
also dates to the Tang dynasty. The temple's Zhaoxian Pagoda () was first built in 1071 during the Liao dynasty to hold a tooth relic of the Gautama Buddha, Buddha. The pagoda was destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...
and the tooth was discovered from its foundation. A new pagoda was built in 1964. The six aforementioned temples: Guangji, Guanghua, Tongjiao, Xihuang, Yonghe and Lingguang have been designated National Key Buddhist Temples in Han Chinese Area.
In addition, other notable temples in Beijing include the Tanzhe Temple (founded in the Jin dynasty (266–420) is the oldest in the municipality), the Tianning Temple (Beijing), Tianning Temple (oldest pagoda in the city), the Miaoying Temple (famed for Yuan dynasty, Yuan-era white pagoda), the Wanshou Temple (home to the Beijing Art Museum) and the Big Bell Temple (Dazhong Temple).
Islam
Beijing has about 70 mosques recognized by the Islamic Association of China, whose headquarters are located next to the Niujie Mosque, the oldest mosque in the city. The Niujie Mosque was founded in 996 during the Liao dynasty and is frequently visited by Muslim dignitaries. The Chinese Muslim community reportedly celebrated Ramadan and made Eid prayers at the mosque on 2021.
The largest mosque in Beijing is ChangYing mosque, located in ChaoYang district, with an area of 8,400 square meters.
Other notable mosques in the old city include the Dongsi Mosque, founded in 1346; the Huashi Mosque, founded in 1415; Nan Douya Mosque, near Chaoyangmen; Jinshifang Street Mosque, in Xicheng District; and the Dongzhimen Mosque. There are large mosques in outlying Muslim communities in Haidian, Madian, Beijing, Madian, Tongzhou, Changping, Changying, Shijingshan and Miyun. The China Islamic Institute is located in the Niujie neighborhood in Xicheng District.
Christianity
Catholicism
In 1289, John of Montecorvino came to Beijing as a Franciscan missionary with the order from the Pope. After meeting and receiving the support of Kublai Khan
Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...
in 1293, he built the first Catholic church in Beijing in 1305. The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association (CPCA), based in Houhai is the government oversight body for Catholics in mainland China. Notable Catholic churches in Beijing include:
* the Nantang or Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Beijing, Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception also known as the Xuanwumen Church, which was founded in 1605 and whose current archbishop, Joseph Li Shan, is one of the few bishops in China to have the support of both the Vatican and the CPCA.
* the Dongtang or St. Joseph's Church, Beijing, St. Joseph's Church, better known as the Wangfujing Church, founded in 1653.
* the Beitang or Church of the Saviour, Beijing, Church of the Saviour, also known as the Xishiku Church, founded in 1703.
* the Xitang or Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Beijing, Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel also known as the Xizhimen Church, founded in 1723.
The National Seminary of Catholic Church in China is located in Daxing District.
Protestantism
The earliest Protestant churches in Beijing were founded by Protestant missions in China 1807–1953, British and American missionaries in the second half of the 19th century. Protestant missionaries also opened schools, universities and hospitals which have become important civic institutions. Most of Beijing's Protestant churches were destroyed during the Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...
and afterwards rebuilt. In 1958, the 64 Protestant churches in the city are reorganized into four and overseen by the state through the Three-Self Patriotic Movement.
Eastern Orthodox
There was a significant amount of Orthodox Christians in Beijing. Orthodoxy came to Beijing with Albazinians, Russian prisoners from the Sino-Russian border conflicts of the 17th century. In 1956, Viktor, the bishop of Beijing returned to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet embassy took over the old cathedral and demolished it. In 2007, the Russian embassy built a new church in its garden to serve the Russian Orthodox Christians in Beijing.
Media
Television and radio
Beijing Television broadcasts on channels 1 through 10, and China Central Television, China's largest television network, maintains its headquarters in Beijing. Three radio stations feature programmes in English: ''Hit FM'' on FM 88.7, ''Easy FM'' by China Radio International on FM 91.5, and the newly launched ''Radio 774'' on AM 774. Beijing Radio Stations is the family of radio stations serving the city.
Press
The well-known ''Beijing Evening News'', covering news about Beijing in Chinese, is distributed every afternoon. Other newspapers include ''Beijing Daily'', ''The Beijing News'', the ''Beijing Star Daily'', the ''Beijing Morning News'', and the ''Beijing Youth Daily'', as well as English-language weeklies ''Beijing Weekend'' and ''Beijing Today''. The ''People's Daily'', ''Global Times'' and the ''China Daily'' (English) are published in Beijing as well.
Publications primarily aimed at international visitors and the expatriate community include the English-language periodicals ''Time Out Beijing'', ''City Weekend'', ''Beijing This Month'', ''Beijing Talk'', ''That's Beijing'', and ''The Beijinger''.
Beijing rock
Beijing rock (Chinese: 北京摇滚) is a wide variety of rock and roll music made by rock bands and solo artists from Beijing. The first rock band in Beijing is Peking All-Stars, which was formed in 1979 by foreigners.
Famous rock bands and solo artists from Beijing include Cui Jian, Dou Wei, He Yong (rock musician), He Yong, Pu Shu, Tang Dynasty (band), Tang Dynasty, Black Panther (band), Black Panther, The Flowers (Chinese band), The Flowers, Wang Feng (singer), 43 Baojia Street, etc.
Beijing born celebrities
Mei Lanfang (22 October 1894 – 8 August 1961) is a Beijing opera singer. At age 15, he became an orphan and was adopted by his uncle's family. He started stage life in 1905 and became famous at 25 years old during performances in Japan. He was a pre-modern superstar, and famous for his portrayal of the Dan role, the elegant female archetype. After the Communist revolution, he served as an opera and performing art counselor in China. In November 2007, a theater namely Mei Lanfang Grand Theater opened in Xicheng District, Beijing to memorize him.
Yuan Longping (7 September 1930- 22 May 2021) is a Chinese agronomist. He studied at Southwest Agricultural University. He encountered national famine at the beginning of his career. This made him determined to solve the food shortage in China. He worked as a pioneer on hybrid rice back in 1960. His research on cross breeding wild abortive rice with mutated male-sterile rice was later involve a lot of research around the globe. In 2004, Yuan Longping was awarded the World Food Prize because he conducted pioneer research that helped transform China from food deficiency to food security within three decades.
Cui Jian (August 1960 – present) is a Chinese rock singer. Various media praised him as the father of China's rock music. He introduces western Rock to China in 1986 and mixed it with Chinese traditional music. Some of his songs are associated with movements in Chinese society such as "Nothing to My Name" and "Rock 'n' Roll on the New Long March". He also directed one movie called "Blue Sky Bones" at age 52.
Yang Jiang (17 July 1911- 25 May 2016) is a Chinese writer and translator. She was educated at a Chinese university and Oxford University. Ms. Yang was known for her fiction, plays, essay, and nonfiction. She is the first person who translates "Don Quixote" into Chinese. Later, she taught at Tsinghua University for many years and retired in 1980. Some of her representative works are the essay collection "We three" and the novel "Baptism". She died on 25 May 2016, at a hospital in Beijing.
Shu Qingchun (3 Feb 1899 – 24 August 1966), pen name Lao She, is a Chinese writer, linguist, and artist. He wrote eight million Chinese characters in entire life, is famous for long novels and scripts. In his iconic works, there are two long novels, two novellas, six short stories, and three scripts. Most of his works are depicting the poor life of Chinese citizens in the late Qing dynasty. He has been living in Britain, Singapore, and United States. During the Chinese Culture Revolution, he committed suicide by drowning in Taiping Lake.
Sports
Events
Beijing has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable was the 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympic and 2008 Summer Paralympics, Paralympic Games. Other multi-sport event, multi-sport international events held in Beijing include the 2001 Universiade and the 1990 Asian Games. Single-sport international competitions include the Beijing Marathon (annually since 1981), China Open (tennis), China Open of Tennis (1993–97, annually since 2004), ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Cup of China (2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010), World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, WPBSA China Open (snooker), China Open for Snooker (annually since 2005), Union Cycliste Internationale Tour of Beijing (since 2011 Tour of Beijing, 2011), 1961 World Table Tennis Championships, 1987 IBF World Championships, 1987 IBF Badminton World Championships, the 2004 AFC Asian Cup (football), and 2009 Barclays Asia Trophy (football). Beijing hosted the 2015 World Championships in Athletics, 2015 IAAF World Championships in Athletics.
Beijing's LeSports Center is one of the main venues for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
The city hosted the second National Games of China, Chinese National Games in 1914 and the first four National Games of China in 1959, 1965, 1975, 1979, respectively, and co-hosted the 1993 National Games with Sichuan and Qingdao. Beijing also hosted the inaugural National Peasants' Games in 1988 and the sixth National Minority Games in 1999.
In November 2013, Beijing made a Beijing bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics, bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics
The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beij ...
. On 31 July 2015, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics to the city becoming the first ever to host both Summer and Winter Olympics also for the 2022 Winter Paralympics becoming the first ever to host both Summer and Winter Paralympics.
Venues
Major sporting venues in the city include the Beijing National Stadium, National Stadium, also known as the "Birds' Nest", Beijing National Aquatics Center, National Aquatics Center, also known as the "Water Cube", Beijing National Indoor Stadium, National Indoor Stadium, all in the Olympic Green to the north of downtown; the MasterCard Center at Wukesong station, Wukesong west of downtown; the Workers' Stadium and Workers Indoor Arena, Workers' Arena in Sanlitun just east of downtown and the Capital Indoor Stadium, Capital Arena in Baishiqiao, northeast of downtown. In addition, many universities in the city have their own sport facilities.
Clubs
Professional sports teams based in Beijing include:
* China Baseball League
** Beijing Tigers
* Chinese Basketball Association
** Beijing Ducks
** Beijing Royal Fighters
* Women's Chinese Basketball Association
** Beijing Shougang
* Kontinental Hockey League
** HC Kunlun Red Star
* Chinese Super League
** Beijing Guoan F.C., Beijing Guoan
* China League One
** Beijing Sport University F.C., Beijing BSU
* China League Two
** Beijing Institute of Technology F.C., Beijing BIT
* Chinese Women's National League
** Beijing BG Phoenix F.C., Beijing BG Phoenix
The Beijing Olympians of the American Basketball Association (2000–present), American Basketball Association, formerly a Chinese Basketball Association team, kept their name and maintained a roster of primarily Chinese players after moving to Maywood, California in 2005.
China Bandy Federation is based in Beijing, one of several cities in which the potential for bandy development is explored.
Transportation
Beijing is an important transport hub in North China with six Ring roads of Beijing, ring roads, 1167 km (725 miles) of expressways, 15 National Highways, nine conventional railways, and six high-speed railways converging on the city.
Rail and high-speed rail
Beijing serves as a large rail hub in Rail transport in the People's Republic of China, China's railway network. Ten conventional rail lines radiate from the city to: Beijing–Shanghai railway, Shanghai (Jinghu Line), Beijing–Guangzhou railway, Guangzhou (Jingguang Line), Beijing–Kowloon railway, Kowloon (Jingjiu Line), Beijing–Harbin railway, Harbin (Jingha Line) (including Beijing–Qinhuangdao railway, Qinhuangdao (Jingqin Line)), Beijing–Baotou railway, Baotou (Jingbao Line), Beijing–Chengde railway, Chengde (Jingcheng Line), Beijing–Tongliao railway, Tongliao, Inner Mongolia (Jingtong Line), Beijing–Yuanping railway, Yuanping, Shanxi (Jingyuan Line) and Fengtai–Shacheng railway, Shacheng, Hebei (Fengsha Line). In addition, the Datong–Qinhuangdao railway passes through the municipality to the north of the city.
Beijing also has six high-speed rail lines: the Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway, which opened in 2008; the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway, which opened in 2011; the Beijing–Guangzhou high-speed railway, which opened in 2012; and the Beijing–Xiong'an intercity railway and the Beijing–Zhangjiakou intercity railway, both of which opened in 2019. The Beijing–Shenyang high-speed railway was completed in 2021.
The city's main railway stations are the Beijing railway station, which opened in 1959; the Beijing West railway station, which opened in 1996; and the Beijing South railway station, which was rebuilt into the city's high-speed railway station in 2008; The Beijing North railway station, was first built in 1905 and expanded in 2009; The Qinghe railway station, was first built in 1905 and expanded in 2019; The Beijing Chaoyang railway station opened in 2021; The Beijing Fengtai railway station opened in 2022; and the Beijing Sub-Center railway station is under construction.
Smaller stations in the city including Beijing East railway station and Daxing Airport station handle mainly commuter passenger traffic. In outlying suburbs and counties of Beijing, there are over 40 railway stations.
From Beijing, Passenger rail transport in China, direct passenger train service is available to most large cities in China. International train service is available to Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
, Russia, Vietnam and North Korea. Passenger trains in China are numbered according to their railroad direction, direction in relation to Beijing.
Roads and expressways
Beijing is connected by road links to all parts of China as part of the National Trunk Road Network. Many expressways of China serve Beijing, as do 15 China National Highways. Beijing's urban transport is dependent upon the "ring roads
A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...
" that concentrically surround the city, with the Forbidden City
The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...
area marked as the geographical center for the ring roads. The ring roads appear more rectangular than ring-shaped. There is no official "1st Ring Road". The 2nd Ring Road
The 2nd Ring Road () is the innermost ring road highway which encircles the city center of Beijing, People's Republic of China. (The first ring road had been a circular tram route.)
The ring road can be divided into two parts: the original ring ...
is located in the inner city. Ring roads tend to resemble Controlled-access highway, expressways progressively as they extend outwards, with the 5th and 6th Ring Road
The 6th Ring Road () is an expressway ring road in Beijing, China which runs around the city approximately from the center of the city. The 6th Ring Road is approximately long.
The road is numbered G4501 and as such is strictly speaking con ...
s being full-standard national expressways, linked to other roads only by interchanges. Expressways to other regions of China are generally accessible from the 3rd Ring Road (Beijing), 3rd Ring Road outward. A final outer orbital, the G95 Capital Area Loop Expressway, Capital Area Loop Expressway (G95), was fully opened in 2018 and will extend into neighboring Tianjin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...
and Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...
.
Within the urban core, city streets generally follow the checkerboard pattern of the ancient capital. Many of Beijing's boulevards and streets with "inner" and "outer" are still named in relation to gates in the city wall, though most gates no longer stand. Traffic jams are a major concern. Even outside of rush hour, several roads still remain clogged with traffic.
Beijing's urban design layout further exacerbates transportation problems. The authorities have introduced several bus lanes, which only public buses can use during rush hour. In the beginning of 2010, Beijing had 4 million registered automobiles. By the end of 2010, the government forecast 5 million. In 2010, new car registrations in Beijing averaged 15,500 per week.
Towards the end of 2010, the city government announced a series of drastic measures to tackle traffic jams, including limiting the number of new license plates issued to passenger cars to 20,000 a month and barring cars with non-Beijing plates from entering areas within the Fifth Ring Road during rush hour. More restrictive measures are also reserved during major events or heavily polluted weather.
Road signs began to be standardized with both Chinese and English names displayed, with location names using pinyin, in 2008.
Air
Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing has two of the world's largest airports. The Beijing Capital International Airport
Beijing Capital International Airport is one of two international airports serving Beijing, the other one being Beijing Daxing International Airport (PKX). It is located northeast of Beijing's city center, in an exclave of Chaoyang District ...
(IATA: PEK) located northeast of the city center in Chaoyang District, Beijing, Chaoyang District bordering Shunyi District, is the World's busiest airports by passenger traffic, second busiest airport in the world after Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Capital Airport's Terminal 3, built during the expansion for the 2008 Olympics, is one of the largest in the world. Capital Airport is the main hub for Air China and Hainan Airlines. The Airport Expressway (Beijing), Airport Expressway and 2nd Airport Expressway, Second Airport Expressway, connect to Capital Airport from the northeast and east of the city center, respectively. Driving time from city center is about 40 minutes under normal traffic conditions. The Capital Airport Express line of Beijing Subway
The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 25 lines including 20 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and 2 light rail lines, and 463 stations. The rail network extends acro ...
and the Beijing Airport Bus, Capital Airport Bus serves the Capital Airport.
Beijing Daxing International Airport
The Beijing Daxing International Airport
Beijing Daxing International Airport , is one of two international airports serving Beijing, the other one being Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK). It is located on the border of Beijing and Langfang, Hebei Province. It has been ...
(IATA: PKX) located south of the city in Daxing District bordering the city of Langfang, Hebei Province, opened on 25 September 2019. The Daxing Airport has one of the world's largest terminal buildings and is expected to be a major airport serving Beijing, Tianjin and northern Hebei Province. Daxing Airport is connected to the city via the Beijing–Xiong'an intercity railway, the Daxing Airport Express line of the Beijing Subway and two expressways.
Other airports
With the opening of the Daxing Airport in September 2019, the Beijing Nanyuan Airport (IATA:NAY), located south of center in Fengtai District, has been closed to civilian airline service. Other airports in the city at Liangxiang, Xijiao, Shahe and Badaling are primarily for military use.
Visa requirements for air passengers
, tourists from 45 countries are permitted a 72-hour visa-free stay in Beijing. The 45 countries include Singapore, Japan, the United States, Canada, all EU and EEA countries (except Norway and Liechtenstein), Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina and Australia. The programme benefits transit and business travellers with the 72 hours calculated starting from the moment visitors receive their transit stay permits rather than the time of their plane's arrival. Foreign visitors are not permitted to leave Beijing for other Chinese cities during the 72 hours.["Beijing 72-hour Visa-free" ChinaTour.Net]
Accessed 6 June 2014
Public transit
The Beijing Subway
The Beijing Subway is the rapid transit system of Beijing Municipality that consists of 25 lines including 20 rapid transit lines, two airport rail links, one maglev line and 2 light rail lines, and 463 stations. The rail network extends acro ...
, which began operating in 1969, now has 25 lines, 459 List of Beijing Subway stations, stations, and of Line length, lines. It is the List of metro systems, longest subway system in the world and Metro systems by annual passenger rides, first in annual ridership with 3.66 billion rides delivered in 2016. In 2013, with a flat fare of Renminbi, ¥2.00 (US$0.31) per ride with unlimited transfers on all lines except the Airport Express, Beijing Subway, Airport Express, the subway was also the most affordable rapid transit in China, rapid transit system in China. The subway is undergoing rapid expansion and is expected to reach 30 lines, 450 stations, in length by 2022. When fully implemented, 95% of residents inside the 4th Ring Road, Fourth Ring Road will be able to walk to a station in 15 minutes. The Beijing Suburban Railway provides commuter rail service to outlying suburbs of the municipality.
On 28 December 2014, the Beijing Subway switched to a distance-based fare system from a fixed fare for all lines except the Airport Express, Beijing Subway, Airport Express. Under the new system a trip under will cost Renminbi, ¥3.00(US$0.49), an additional Renminbi, ¥1.00 will be added for the next and the next until the distance for the trip reaches . For every after the original an additional Renminbi, ¥1.00 is added. For example, a trip would cost Renminbi, ¥ 8.00.
There are nearly 1,000 Beijing Bus, public bus and trolleybus lines in the city, including four bus rapid transit lines. Standard bus fares are as low as ¥1.00 when purchased with the ''Yikatong'' metrocard.
Taxi
Metered taxicab, taxi in Beijing start at ¥13 for the first , ¥2.3 Renminbi per additional and ¥1 per ride fuel surcharge, not counting idling fees which are ¥2.3 (¥4.6 during rush hours of 7–9 am and 5–7 pm) per 5 minutes of standing or running at speeds lower than . Most taxis are Hyundai Elantras, Hyundai Sonatas, Peugeots, Citroëns and Volkswagen Jettas. After , the base fare increases by 50% (but is only applied to the portion ''over'' that distance). Different companies have special colours combinations painted on their vehicles. Usually registered taxis have yellowish brown as basic hue, with another color of Prussian blue, hunter green, white, umber, tyrian purple, rufous, or sea green. Between 11 pm and 5 am, there is also a 20% fee increase. Rides over and between 23:00 and 06:00 incur both charges, for a total increase of 80%. Tolls during trip should be covered by customers and the costs of trips beyond Beijing city limits should be negotiated with the driver. The cost of unregistered taxis is also subject to negotiation with the driver.
Bicycles
Beijing has long been well known for the number of bicycles on its streets. Although the rise of motor traffic has created a great deal of congestion and bicycle use has declined, bicycles are still an important form of local transportation. Many cyclists can be seen on most roads in the city, and most of the main roads have dedicated bicycle lanes. Beijing is relatively flat, which makes cycling convenient. The rise of electric bicycles and electric scooters, which have similar speeds and use the same cycle lanes, may have brought about a revival in bicycle-speed two-wheeled transport. It is possible to cycle to most parts of the city. Because of the growing traffic congestion, the authorities have indicated more than once that they wish to encourage cycling, but it is not clear whether there is sufficient will to translate that into action on a significant scale. On 30 March 2019, a 6.5 km (4 mile) bicycle-dedicated lane was opened, easing the traffic congestion between Huilongguan and Shangdi where there are many high-tech companies. Cycling has seen a resurgence in popularity spurred by the emergence of a large number of dockless app based Bicycle-sharing system, bikeshares such as Mobike, Bluegogo and Ofo (bike sharing), Ofo since 2016.
Defence and aerospace
The command headquarters of China's military forces are based in Beijing. The Central Military Commission (China), Central Military Commission, the political organ in charge of the military, is housed inside the Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China, Ministry of National Defense, located next to the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution in western Beijing. The Second Artillery Corps, which controls the country's Intercontinental ballistic missile, strategic missile and nuclear weapons, has its command in Qinghe Subdistrict, Beijing, Qinghe, Haidian District. The headquarters of the Central Theater Command, one of five nationally, is based further west in Gaojing. The CTR oversees the Beijing Capital Garrison as well as the 27th Army (People's Republic of China), 27th, 38th Army (People's Republic of China), 38th and 65th Army (People's Republic of China), 65th Armies, which are based in Hebei.
Military institutions in Beijing also include academies and thinktanks such as the PLA National Defence University and PLA Academy of Military Science, Academy of Military Science, military hospitals such as the 301 Military Hospital, 301, 307 Hospital, 307 and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, and army-affiliated cultural entities such as 1 August Film Studios and the Chinese People's Liberation Army Naval Song and Dance Troupe, PLA Song and Dance Troupe.
The China National Space Administration, which oversees country's Chinese space program, space program, and several space-related state owned companies such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, CASTC and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, CASIC are all based in Beijing. The Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center, in Haidian District tracks the country's Shenzhou program, crewed and uncrewed flight and other space exploration initiatives.
Nature and wildlife
Beijing Municipality has 20 nature reserves that have a total area of . The mountains to the west and north of the city are home to a number of protected wildlife species including leopard, leopard cat, wolf, red fox, wild boar, masked palm civet, raccoon dog, hog badger, Siberian weasel, Amur hedgehog, roe deer, and mandarin rat snake. The Beijing Aquatic Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center protects the Chinese giant salamander, Amur stickleback and mandarin duck on the Huaijiu and Huaisha Rivers in Huairou District
Huairou District () is situated in northern Beijing about from the city center (about a 1½ to 2 hour drive).
History
In 1995 during the United Nation's 4th World's Women Conference in Beijing, the Civil Society community was forced to meet in t ...
. The Milu Yuan, Beijing Milu Park south of the city is home to one of the largest herds of Père David's deer, now extinct in the wild. The Beijing barbastelle, a species of vesper bat discovered in caves of Fangshan District
Fangshan District () is situated in the southwest of Beijing, away from downtown Beijing. It has an area of and a population of 814,367 (2000 Census). The district is divided into 8 subdistricts, 14 towns, and 6 townships.
The district administ ...
in 2001 and identified as a distinct species in 2007, is endemic to Beijing. The mountains of Fangshan are also habitat for the more common Beijing mouse-eared bat, large myotis, greater horseshoe bat and Rickett's big-footed bat.
Each year, Beijing hosts 200–300 species of Bird migration, migratory birds including the common crane, black-headed gull, swan, mallard, common cuckoo and the endangered yellow-breasted bunting. In May 2016, Common cuckoos nesting in the wetlands of Cuihu (Haidian), Hanshiqiao (Shunyi), Yeyahu (Yanqing) were tagged and have been traced to far as India, Kenya and Mozambique. In the fall of 2016, the Beijing Forest Police undertook a month-long campaign to crack down on illegal hunting and trapping of migratory birds for sale in local bird markets. Over 1,000 rescued birds of protected species including streptopelia, Eurasian siskin, crested myna, coal tit and great tit were handed to the Beijing Wildlife Protection and Rescue Center for repatriation to the wild.
The city flowers are the Rosa chinensis, Chinese rose and chrysanthemum. The city trees are the Chinese arborvitae, an evergreen in the cypress Cupressaceae, family and the pagoda tree, also called the Chinese scholar tree, a deciduous tree of the family Fabaceae.[ The oldest scholar tree in the city was planted in what is now Beihai Park during the ]Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
.
International relations
The capital is the home of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a multilateral development bank that aims to improve economic and social outcomes in Asia and the Silk Road Fund
The Silk Road Fund ( zh, s=丝路基金, t=, p=) is a state-owned investment fund of the Chinese government to foster increased investment in countries along the One Belt, One Road, an economic development initiative primarily covering Eura ...
, an investment fund of the Chinese government to foster increased investment and provide financial supports in countries along the One Belt, One Road. Beijing is also home to the headquarters of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), making it an important city for diplomacy, international diplomacy.
Twin towns and sister cities
Beijing is Sister city, twinned with the following regions, cities, and counties:
* Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
* Ankara, Turkey
* Astana, Kazakhstan
* Athens, Greece
* Bangkok, Thailand
* Berlin, Germany
* Brussels, Belgium
* Bucharest, Romania
* Budapest, Hungary
* Buenos Aires, Argentina
* Cairo, Egypt
* Canberra, Australia
* Cologne, Germany
* Copenhagen, Denmark
* Delhi, India
* Doha, Qatar
* Dublin, Ireland
* Hanoi, Vietnam
* Havana, Cuba
* Île-de-France, France
* Islamabad, Pakistan
* Jakarta, Indonesia
* Johannesburg, South Africa
* Kyiv, Ukraine
* Lima, Peru
* London, England, United Kingdom
* Manila, Philippines
* Minsk, Belarus
* Mexico City, Mexico
* Moscow, Russia
* New South Wales, Australia
* New York City, United States
* Ottawa, Canada
* Phnom Penh, Cambodia
* Riga, Latvia
* Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
* San José, Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
* Santiago, Chile
* Seoul, South Korea
* Tallinn, Estonia
* Tehran, Iran
* Tel Aviv, Israel
* Tirana, Albania
* Tokyo, Japan
* Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
* Vientiane, Laos
* Washington D.C., United States
* Wellington, New Zealand
Foreign embassies and consulates
In 2019, China had the largest diplomatic network in the world. China hosts a List of diplomatic missions in China, large diplomatic community in its capital city of Beijing. At present, the capital of Beijing hosts 172 embassies, 1 consulate and 3 representatives, excluding Hong Kong and Macau trade office.
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Representative offices and delegations
* (Representative Office)
* (Representative Office)
* (European Union Ambassador to China, Delegation of the European Union to China)
See also
* Beijing city fortifications
* Historical capitals of China
* Large Cities Climate Leadership Group
* List of hospitals in Beijing
* List of mayors of Beijing
* List of twin towns and sister cities in China
* List of diplomatic missions in China
* Uyghurs in Beijing
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
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Further reading
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External links
Economic profile for Beijing
at Hong Kong Trade Development Council, HKTDC
Visit Beijing Facebook page
Photograph of ''The approach to Peking – outside the walls''
taken in 1890 by Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet, Sir Henry Norman
{{Authority control
Beijing,
Municipalities of China
Articles containing video clips
Capitals in Asia
Metropolitan areas of China
North China Plain
Populated places established in the 2nd millennium BC
11th-century BC establishments in China