Reproduced with permission from China 11th Edition © Lonely Planet 2009” www.LonelyPlanet.com

Běijīng – affectionately called Peking by diplomats,nostalgic journalists and wistful academics seems to have presided over China since time immemorial. In fact, Běijīng (Northern Capital) – positioned outside the central heartland of Chinese civilisation – emerged as a cultural and political force that would shape the destiny of China only with the 13th century Mongol occupation of China.

Located on a vast plain that extends south as far as the distant Yellow River, Běijīng benefits from neither proximity to a major river nor the sea. Without its strategic location on the edge of the North China Plain, it would hardly be an ideal place to locate a major city, let alone a national capital.

The area southwest of Běijīng was inhabited by early humans some 500,000 years ago. Ancient Chinese chronicles refer to a state called Yōuzhōu (Secluded State) existing during the reign of the mythical Yellow Emperor, one of nine states that existed at the time, although the earliest recorded settlements in Chinese historical sources date from 1045 BC.

occupied by foreign forces, promoting its development as a major political centre. Before the Mongol invasion, the city was established as an auxiliary capital under the Khitan Liao and later as the capital under the Jurchen Jin, when it underwent significant transformation into a key political and military city. The city was enclosed within fortified walls for the first time, accessed by eight gates.

After Chiang Kaishek’s coup against the communists in 1927, the Kuomintang cooperated with the foreign police and the Shànghǎi gangs, and with Chinese and foreign factory owners, to suppress labour unrest. Exploited in workhouse conditions, crippled by hunger and poverty, sold into slavery, excluded from the high life and the parks created by the foreigners, the poor of Shànghǎi had a voracious appetite for radical opinion. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was formed here in 1921 and, after numerous setbacks, ‘liberated’ the city in 1949.

In AD 1215 the great Mongol warrior Genghis Khan and his formidable army razed Běijīng, an event that was paradoxically to mark Běijīng’s transformation into a powerful national capital. Apart from the first 53 years of the Ming dynasty and 21 years of Nationalist rule in the 20th century, it enjoys this status to the present day.

The city came to be called Dàdū (大都; Great Capital), also assuming the Mongol name Khanbalik (the Khan’s town). By 1279 Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, had made himself ruler of the largest empire the world has ever known, with Dàdū its capital. Surrounded by a vast rectangular wall punctured by three gates on each of its sides, the
city was centred on the Drum and Bell Towers near their surviving Ming-dynasty counterparts), its regular layout a paragon
of urban design.

After seizing Běijīng, the first Ming emperor Hongwu (r 1368–98) renamed the city Běipíng (Northern Peace) and established his capital in Nánjīng in present-day Jiāngsū province to the south. It wasn’t until the reign of Emperor Yongle (r 1403–24) that the court moved back to Běijīng. Seeking to rid the city of all Mongol traces, the Ming levelled their fabulous palaces along with the Imperial City, while preserving much of the regular plan of the Mongol capital.

The Ming was the only pure Chinese dynasty to rule from Běijīng (bar today’s government). During Ming rule, the huge city walls were repaired and redesigned. Yongle is credited with being the true architect of the modern city, and much of Běijīng’s hallmark architecture, such as the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven, date from his reign. The
countenance of Ming-dynasty Běijīng was flat and low-lying – a feature that would remain until the 20th century – as law forbade the construction of any building higher than the Forbidden City’s Hall of Supreme Harmony. The basic grid of present-day Běijīng had been laid and the city had adopted a guise that would survive to today.

The Manchus, who invaded China in the 17th century to establish the Qing dynasty, essentially preserved Běijīng’s form. In the last 120 years of the Qing dynasty, Běijīng, and subsequently China, was subjected to power struggles and invasions and the ensuing chaos. The list is long: the Anglo-French troops who in 1860 burnt the Old Summer
Palace to the ground; the corrupt regime of Empress Dowager Cixi; the catastrophic Boxer Rebellion; General Yuan Shikai; the warlords; the Japanese occupation of 1937; and the Kuomintang. Each and every period left its undeniable mark, although the shape and symmetry of Běijīng was maintained.

Modern Běijīng came of age when, in January 1949, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) entered the city. On 1 October of that year Mao Zedong proclaimed a ‘People’s Republic’ from Tiananmen Gate to an audience of some 500,000 citizens. Like the emperors before them, the communists significantly altered the face of Běijīng to suit their own image. The páilou (decorative archways) were brought down, while whole city blocks were pulverised to widen major boulevards. From 1950 to 1952, the city’s magnificent outer walls were levelled in the interests of traffic circulation. Soviet experts and technicians poured in, bringing their own Stalinesque touches. The past quarter of a century has transformed Běijīng into a modern city, with skyscrapers, slick shopping malls and heaving flyovers. The once flat skyline is now crenellated with vast apartment blocks and office buildings. Recent years have also seen a convincing beautification of Běijīng: from a toneless and unkempt city to a greener, cleaner and more pleasant place.

CLIMATE

“Reproduced with permission from China 11th Edition © Lonely Planet 2009” www.LonelyPlanet.com

Autumn (September to early November) is the optimal season to visit Běijīng as the
weather is gorgeous and fewer tourists are in town. Local Beijingers describe this short season of clear skies and breezy days as tiāngāo qìshuǎng (literally ‘the sky is high and the air is fresh’). In winter it’s glacial outside (dipping as low as -20°C) and the northern winds cut like a knife through bean curd. Arid spring is OK, apart from the awesome sand clouds
that sweep in from Inner Mongolia and the static electricity that discharges every where. Spring also sees the snowlike liǔxù (willow catkins) wafting through the air and collecting in drifts. From May onwards the mercury can surge well over 30°C. Běijīng simmers under a scorching sun in summer (reaching over 40°C), which also sees heavy rainstorms late in the season. Maybe surprisingly, this is also considered the peak season, when hotels typically raise their rates and the Great
Wall nearly collapses under the weight of marching tourists. Air pollution can be intolerable in both summer and winter (see
boxed text, right).

LANGUAGE

Běijīnghuà, the Chinese spoken in the capital, is widely acknowledged as the most superior form of the language. Although the standard form of Mandarin is based on the Běijīng dialect, the two differ to a great degree in both accent and colloquial terms.