The Beijing Black, also known as the Peking Black, is a

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

domestic pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

from

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 ...

. They are mostly black, but have some white markings. The breed was created in 1962 by cross-breeding a

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

with a common Chinese pig. Two other breeds, the

Soviet White The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, were also crossbred with native Chinese pigs. It is described as being a "strong, rugged breed" that has "good production traits". Breeds from which pigs are chosen to breed new litters have to match several factors, which include "litter size at birth and weaning, weight at weaning, and weight and back fat thickness at 6 months of age". The pigs that pass these requirements breed with Beijing Black pigs of other lines to create greater variety.

References

Pig breeds originating in China {{pig-stub