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Beijing (北京, Hanyu Pinyin: Běijīng, Wade-Giles: Pei-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Peking), is the capital city of the People's Republic of China.
Beijing is one of the 4 municipalities of the People's Republic of China, which have a provincial-level status, and is under the direct control of the central government. Beijing has been a municipality since the beginning of the PRC.
Beijing is one of the largest cities in China, second only to Shanghai as the nation's biggest. It is also a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and expressways connecting the capital city in all directions.
Names
Beijing literally means "northern capital" (as opposed to Nanjing, meaning "southern capital" and Tonkin and Tokyo, both of which mean "eastern capital"). Beijing is sometimes referred to as Peking. The term originated with French missionaries four hundred years ago, and corresponds to an archaic pronunciation which does not take into account a /k/ to /tɕ/ sound change in Mandarin that occurred during the Qing dynasty. (/tɕ/ is represented in pinyin as j, as in Beijing.)
In China, the city has had many names. Between 1928 [1] (http://www.bartleby.com/67/2470.html) and 1949, it was known as Beiping (北平 Wade-Giles Peip'ing) or "Northern Peace". The name was changed because jing means "capital" and the Kuomintang government in Nanjing wanted to emphasize that Beijing was not the capital of China, and Beijing's warlord government was not legitimate.
The name was changed back to Beijing by the Japanese, since Beijing was the capital of a North China puppet state under Japanese control; at the end of World War II the Republic of China changed the name back. The Communist Party of China changed the name to Beijing in 1949 again in part to emphasize that Beijing was the capital of China. The government of the Republic of China on Taiwan has not formally recognized the name change, and during the 1950s and 1960s it was common for Beijing to be called Peiping on Taiwan. Today, almost everyone on Taiwan, including the ROC government, uses the term Beijing, although some maps of China from Taiwan still use the old name along with pre-1949 provincial boundaries.
For the historical names of Beijing, see Capital of China.
History
The metropolitan area of Beijing had been settled in the 1st millennium BC and the capital of Kingdom Yan (燕) was established there, who named it Ji (蓟). Ji has often been claimed to be the beginning of Beijing; but in reality Ji had been abandoned no later than the 6th century. The exact location of Ji remains unknown despite much effort in recent decades to identify the site.
Remnants of city walls around Beijing (August 2004 image)
During the great Tang and Song dynasties, only townships existed in this area. Numerous ancient poets came here to mourn the lost city, as testified by their surviving compositions.
By the early 10th century, Kingdom Liao had set up a "secondary capital" in the city proper, and called it Nanjing ("the Southern Capital").
The Jin Dynasty that annexed Liao and ruled northern China built its capital there, called Zhongdu (中都), or "the Central Capital".
Mongol forces burned Zhongdu to the ground in 1215 and rebuilt its own "Grand Capital" (大都) to the north of the Jin capital in 1267, which was the true beginning of contemporary Beijing. Apparently, Kublai Khan, who wanted to become a Chinese emperor, established his capital in Beijing instead of more traditional sites in central China because Beijing was closer to his power base in Mongolia. The decision of the Khan greatly enhanced the status of a city that had been situated on the northern fringe of China proper.
In 1403, the 3rd Ming emperor Zhu Di(朱棣）, who had just grabbed the throne by killing his nephew after a bloody civil war and moved the capital from southern China to his own power base in the north, renamed the city Beijing (北京), or "Northern Capital".
The Forbidden City was constructed soon after that (1406-1420), followed by the Temple of Heaven (1420), and numerous other construction projects. Tian'anmen, which has become a state symbol of the PRC in modern times, was burned down twice during the Ming Dynasty and the final reconstruction was carried out in 1651.
Beijing's Tian'anmen Square, as seen from the Tian'anmen Chenglou Building (taken in July of 2004)
The shape and form of Beijing as seen and as recognised today (in particular within the confines of the current-day 2nd Ring Road) took form after the Ming Dynasty settled in Beijing and made it its capital.
While on the mainland, the Republic of China established its capital in Nanjing. During the early days of the Republic, Yuan Shikai seized power in Beijing and declared an empire nation from Beijing (the Beiyang Government). In 1928, Nanjing was officially made the capital of the Republic of China, and Beijing was renamed Beiping. (See "Name" section, above)
During the second Sino-Japanese War, Beiping fell to Japan on July 29, 1937. During the occupation, Beiping was renamed Beijing, and made the seat of the North China Executive Committee, a puppet state that ruled Japanese-occupied North China. This lasted until Japan's surrender in World War II, on August 15, 1945, and Beijing's name was changed back to Beiping.
On January 31, 1949, during the Chinese Civil War, communist forces entered Beiping without a fight. On October 1 of the same year, the Communist Party of China, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, announced in Tian'anmen the creation of the People's Republic of China in Beijing. Just a few days earlier, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference decided that Beiping would be the capital of the PRC, and that its name be changed back to Beijing.
Geography
- Main article: Geography of Beijing
Beijing borders
Hebei province to the north, west, south, and for a tiny fraction to the east. The southwestern part borders
Tianjin municipality. Hills dominate the scene to the north, northwest and west of Beijing.
The city's climate is harsh, characterized by hot, humid summers (due to the East Asian monsoon), and cold, windy, dry winters (reflecting the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone, or high-pressure system).
The urban area of Beijing spreads out in bands of concentric ring roads. Tian'anmen is right at the centre of Beijing, and is directly to the south of the well-known Forbidden City, and to the east of Zhongnanhai, current residence of the paramount leaders of the People's Republic of China. Running through central Beijing is the famous Chang'an Avenue.
Most of the area of Beijing Municipality, however, is found outside the urban area of Beijing, and extends in all directions, especially northwards into the Yanshan Mountains.
Neighbourhoods
Major neighbourhoods in urban Beijing include:
Dongcheng District
Xicheng District
Chaoyang District
Haidian District
Administrative divisions
The municipality currently governs 18 county-level divisions: 16 districts and 2 counties. (Some districts outside of the city centre were previously counties.)
Districts of Beijing
Xidan -- Beijing Bookstore
The urban and suburban areas of the city are made up of 8 districts:
The other 8 districts are found further out, and govern distant suburbs, satellite towns, and some rural areas:
Counties of Beijing
The 2 counties of Beijing govern very distant towns and rural areas:
- Miyun County (密云县: Mìyún Xiàn)
- Yanqing County (延庆县: Yánqìng Xiàn)
Township-level divisions
The above districts and counties are further subdivided into 318 township-level divisions: 142 towns, 40 townships, 5 ethnic townships and 131 subdistricts.
Economy
In 2002 Beijing's total gross domestic product was 313 billion Renminbi, an increase of 10.2% from the previous year. GDP per capita was 27,746 Renminbi, which converts to about US$ 3355 by market exchange rates. (Note that GDP per capita is usually converted by purchasing power parity instead, which would yield a US$ value about four times higher in this case.)
Beijing's real estate and automobile sectors continue to boom in recent years. In 2002 a total of 16.044 million square metres of housing real estate was sold, for a total of 81.38 billion Renminbi. In the same period Beijing saw the sale of 260,000 automobiles. The total number of automobiles registered in Beijing has now exceeded two million, of which 64% are privately-owned.
The Beijing CBD, centered at the Guomao area, has been identified as the city's new central business district, and is home to a variety of corporate regional headquarters, shopping malls, and high-end housing. The Beijing Financial Street, in the Fuxingmen and Fuchengmen area, is a traditional financial center. The Wangfujing and Xidan areas are major shopping districts. Zhongguancun, dubbed "China's Silicon Valley", continues to be a major center in electronics- and computer-related industries, as well as pharmaceuticals-related research.
Architecture
There are three types of building styles, i.e. styles of architectures in Beijing. First, there's the nearly historic architecture of the imperial times gone by (an example would be Tian'anmen, despite being the PRC's trademark building). Next there's the incredibly boxy style used between the 1950s and the 1970s. Finally, there are much more modern architectural forms -- such as skyscrapers, most noticeably in the area of the Beijing CBD.
The ancient Beijing skyline.
The boxy look of buildings made in the
1970s.
The very modern contrast.
A bizarre and striking mix of both old and new styles of architecture can be seen at the Dashanzi Art District, which mixes 1950s-design with a blend of the new.
Demographics
The total population of Beijing municipality in 2003 was 14.56 million, of whom about 11.49 million had Beijing hukou and 3.07 million were on temporary residence permits. In addition, there is a large but unknown number of migrant workers who live illegally in Beijing without temporary residence permits.
The vast majority of Beijing residents are Han Chinese. There are also some Manchus, Hui, and Mongols. In recent years there has been an influx of South Koreans, who live in Beijing predominantly for business and study, and are concentrated in the Wangjing and Wudaokou areas.
The northern, northeastern and eastern parts of the Beijing urban area are densely populated and house the foreign community in the capital. The southwest and southern parts of the Beijing urban area are less densely populated.
Culture
People from urban Beijing speak Beijing dialect, which belongs to the Mandarin subdivision of Chinese spoken language. Beijing dialect provides the basis for Putonghua, the official spoken language of the People's Republic of China and Singapore (where Putonghua is known instead as "Huayu"), as well as for Guoyu, the official spoken language of the Republic of China on Taiwan. Outlying areas of Beijing have their own dialects akin to those of Hebei.
Beijing opera, or Jingju, is well-known throughout the national capital. Commonly lauded as one of the highest achievements of Chinese culture, Beijing opera is performed through a combination of singing, spoken dialogue, and codified action sequences, such as gestures, walking, fighting and acrobatics. Much of Beijing opera is carried out in an archaic stage dialect quite different from modern Putonghua and from the Beijing dialect; this makes the dialogue somewhat hard to understand, and the problem is compounded if one is not familiar with Chinese, although modern theaters often have electronic titles in Chinese and English.
The siheyuan is a traditional architectural style of Beijing. A siheyuan consists of a square housing compound, with rooms enclosing a central courtyard. This courtyard often contains a pomegranate or other type of tree, as well as potted flowers or a fish tank.
Hutongs, or alleyways, connect the interior of Beijing's old city. They are usually straight, bending only at right angles and point in one of the compass directions, mainly east-to-west so that doorways can face north and south for Feng Shui reasons. They vary in width -- some are very narrow, enough for only a few pedestrians to pass through at a time.
Once ubiquitous in Beijing, siheyuans and hutongs are now rapidly disappearing, as entire city blocks of hutongs are leveled and replaced with high-rise buildings. Residents of the hutongs are entitled to apartments in the new buildings 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.
Particularly historic or picturesque hutongs are being preserved and restored by the government, with the objective that by the 2008 Olympics all that will remain are modern buildings and tidy, gleaming showplace hutongs.
Mandarin cuisine is the local style of cooking in Beijing. Peking duck is perhaps the most well-known dish.
Teahouses are also common in Beijing. Chinese tea come in many variants and some (rather expensive) variants of tea cure an ailing body extraordinarily well.
Stereotypes
People from Beijing are stereotyped to be open, confident, boisterous, majestic in manner, concerned with politics or other "grand" matters, unconcerned with thrift or careful calculation, and happy to take center stage. They are however also stereotyped to be aristocratic, conservative, arrogant, lazy, disdainful of "provincials", always "lording it over others", and strongly conscious of social class (usually with themselves near the top). These stereotypes may have originated from Beijing's status as China's capital for the past 800 years. As a Confucian culture, China places a very high emphasis on government bureaucracy and hierarchy, and the high concentration of officials and other notables in Beijing have made an indelible mark, both on Beijing itself and on the impression of Beijing that other Chinese have.
Transportation
- Main article: Transportation of Beijing
Beijing is a true transportation hub. Four completed ring roads encircle a city with nine expressways heading out in virtually all compass directions, supplemented by eleven China National Highways, a good number of railway routes, and a major airport.
Rail
Beijing has two major railway stations: Beijing Railway Station (or the central station) and Beijing West Railway Station. Six other railway stations in Metropolitan Beijing handle regular passenger traffic: Beijing East, Beijing North, Beijing South, Fengtai, Guanganmen, and Hepingli.
Railways
Beijing is a railway hub of all mainland China. Railway lines to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Harbin, Baotou, Taiyuan, Chengde, Qinhuangdao and Kowloon radiate out of Beijing.
International trains, including lines to Russia and Pyongyang, North Korea (DPRK), all run through Beijing. Direct trains to Hong Kong also leave Beijing.
Roads and Expressways
- See: Ring Roads of Beijing, Expressways of Beijing and China National Highways of Beijing for more related information.
Beijing is connected via road links from all parts of China. Nine expressways of China connect with Beijing, as do eleven China National Highways.
One of the biggest concerns with traffic in Beijing deals with its apparently ubiquitous traffic jams. Traffic in the city centre is often gridlocked, especially around rush hour. (Even outside of rush hour, several roads still remain clogged up with traffic.) Topping out areas with frequent traffic jams are areas such as the eastern and western 2nd and 3rd Ring Roads, the northern 4th Ring Road, Shangqing Bridge, Jianguo Road, and Xidaokou.
One big problem is that public transportation is underdeveloped (the underground system is presently minimal) and that even buses are jam-packed with people around rush hour. Beijing authorities claim that traffic jams may be a thing of a past come the 2008 Olympics. The authorities have introduced several bus lanes where, during rush hour, all vehicles except for public buses must keep clear of the special lanes.
Roads in Beijing often are in one of the four compass directions (unlike, for example, Tianjin). Additionally, five ring roads (including one partially open), nine expressways, and numerous fast through routes and China National Highways all form a sophisticated traffic infrastructure.
Chang'an Avenue runs through the centre of Beijing, past Tian'anmen.
Air
Beijing's main airport is the Beijing Capital International Airport near Shunyi, which is about 20 km northeast of Beijing proper. This is where most domestic and nearly all international flights land and depart. Capital Airport is the hub for Air China. It is served by the Airport Expressway and is a roughly 40-minute-drive from City Center during good traffic hours.
Other airports in the city include Liangxiang Airport, Nanyuan Airport, Xijiao Airport and Badaling Airport. However, these are less well-known.
Public Transit
The evolving Beijing Subway has four lines (two above ground, two underground), with several more being built in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics. There are hundreds of bus routes in the city, as well as many trolleybus routes. Taxis are nearly ubiquitous, and some can accept Yikatong cards for payment.
Buses and trolleybus fares cost 1 Renminbi for shorter trips, and more for longer trips. Subway tickets range from 2 to 5 Renminbi. Taxi fares depend on vehicle type: these start at 10 Renminbi for the first 3 to 4 kilometers, and go up by 1.20, 1.60, 2.00, or 2.50 Renminbi per extra kilometer.
Tourism
Tourist Attractions
- Main article: Tourist Attractions of Beijing
Beijing's tourist attractions are plenty and rich in history. The most well-known ones include the Badaling stretch of the Great Wall of China, Tian'anmen and the Forbidden City.
Famous landmarks around Beijing include:
Hotels and Lodging
In the 1950s and 1960s, Beijing had virtually no hotels (at least none by Western standards). What Beijing did have were the zhaodaisuos, which meant "Accommodation Centres". Every zhaodaisuo was subordinate to a state organisation or state organ, and had communal public conveniences and amenities.
In the late 1970s, Beijing opened its door to the outside world and built hotels. Now, plenty of exquisite hotels exist.
The most well-known hotel is the Beijing Hotel, which is state-owned. Other noticeable hotels are the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel, the Jianguo Hotel, the China World Hotel and the Grand Hyatt at Oriental Plaza.
There exist youth hostels but they are few in number. There is one near the centre of town, but accommodation is provided four floors below ground level.
Colleges and Universities
- Main article: Colleges and Universities of Beijing
Beijing is home to plenty of well-known colleges and universities. The most famous ones (known even internationally) include Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, Beijing Broadcasting Institute (well known in the Chinese media circle), Beijing Foreign Studies University, and Renmin University of China.
The following are under the Ministry of Education:
Media
TV and Radio
Beijing has nine TV programmes, numbered channels 1 through 9. Unlike CCTV, there is at present no exclusive English-language TV channel on a citywide level in Beijing.
The TV programmes are run by Beijing TV.
There are two radio stations which feature programmes in English. They are Hit FM on FM 88.7 and Easy FM by CRI on FM 91.5.
Press
The well-known Beijing Evening News newspaper appears without delay every Beijing afternoon, covering news in Chinese about Beijing. Other newspapers are the Beijing Star Daily, the Beijing Morning News and the English-language Beijing Weekend.
Nationwide newspapers are also available in Beijing.
Publications catering to the expat community include City Weekend, that's Beijing and MetroZine, among others.
International newspapers in most languages, including English and Japanese, are available in hotels and Friendship Stores, and content often appears complete.
Miscellaneous topics
Beijing will host the 2008 Summer Olympics and of the 2008 Summer Paralympics.
Sports teams based in Beijing include:
Chinese Football Association Super League
Chinese Basketball Association
See also:
External links
cs:Peking
cy:Beijing
da:Beijing
de:Peking
es:Pekín
eo:Pekino
fr:Pékin
it:Pechino
he:בייג'ין
lt:Pekinas
na:Beijing
nl:Peking
ja:北京
pl:Pekin
pt:Pequim
ro:Beijing
simple:Beijing
fi:Peking
sv:Beijing
zh-cn:北京
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