Beijing

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Beijing
Municipality Municipality of Beijing

Clockwise from top: Tiananmen, Temple of Heaven, National Grand Theatre, and Beijing National Stadium

Location of Beijing Municipality within China

Coordinates:

395450N 1162330E39.91389N

116.39167ECoordinates:
395450N 1162330E39.91389N 116.39167E

Country Divisions[1] - County-level - Township-level Government Type CPC Ctte Secretary Mayor Area Municipality Elevation Population (2010)[2] Municipality Density Ranks in China

People's Republic of China

16 districts, 2 counties 289 towns and villages

Municipality Guo Jinlong Wang Anshun (acting)

16,801.25 km2 (6,487.00 sq mi) 43.5 m (142.7 ft)

19,612,368 1,200/km2 (3,000/sq mi) Population: 26th;

Density: 4th Demonym Beijinger

Major ethnic groups Han Manchu Hui Mongol Time zone Postal code Area code(s) GDP[3] - Total 96% 2% 2% 0.3% China standard time (UTC+8) 100000102629 10 2011 CNY 1.6 trillion US$ 247.7 billion (13th) CNY 80,394 US$ 12,447 (3rd) 8.1% 0.891 (2nd)very high A, C, E, F, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q B (taxis) License plate prefixes G, Y (outside urban area) O (police and authorities) V (in red color) (military headquarters, central government) City trees Chinese arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis) Pagoda tree (Sophora japonica) City flowers China rose (Rosa chinensis) Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum

- Per capita - Growth HDI (2008)

morifolium) Website www.ebeijing.gov.cn

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Beijing
Chinese

Bijng [Listen] (helpinfo)

Hanyu Pinyin

Postal Map

Peking

Literal meaning

Northern capital

[show]Transcriptions

Beijing ( /bed/; Chinese: ; pinyin: Bijng, e i ), sometimes romanized as Peking[4] ( /pik/, /pek/), is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world. The population as of 2010 was 19,612,368.[2] The metropolis, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government, with 14 urban and suburban districts and two rural counties.[5] Beijing Municipality is surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin Municipality to the southeast.[6] Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by urban population after Shanghai and is the nation's political, cultural, and educational center.[7] It is home to the headquarters of most of China's largest state-owned companies, and is a major hub for the national highway, expressway,

railway, and high-speed rail networks, while Beijing Capital International Airport is the second busiest in the world by passenger traffic. Few cities in the world have been the political and cultural center of an area as immense for so long.[8] Beijing is one of the "Four Great Ancient Capitals of China" and has been the political center of China for centuries.[9] The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, and huge stone walls and gates,[10] and its art treasures and universities have made it a center of culture and art in China.[10]

Contents
[hide]

1 Etymology 2 History o 2.1 Early history o 2.2 Early Imperial China o 2.3 Ming Dynasty o 2.4 Qing Dynasty o 2.5 Republican era o 2.6 People's Republic 3 Geography o 3.1 Climate o 3.2 Air quality o 3.3 Dust storms 4 Politics and government o 4.1 Administrative divisions 4.1.1 Towns 4.1.2 Neighbourhoods 5 Economy 6 Demographics 7 Culture o 7.1 Places of interest o 7.2 Architecture 8 Media o 8.1 Television and radio o 8.2 Press 9 Sports o 9.1 Events o 9.2 Venues o 9.3 Teams 10 Transportation o 10.1 Rail and high-speed rail o 10.2 Roads and expressways o 10.3 Air o 10.4 Public transit

o 10.5 Bicycles 11 Education 12 International relations o 12.1 Twin towns and sister cities o 12.2 Partner cities 13 See also 14 Notes and references 15 Further reading 16 External links

[edit] Etymology
See also: Names of Beijing Over the past 3,000 years, the city has held many names. Beijing from the Chinese characters for north and for capital means the "Northern Capital". The name used during the Ming Dynasty, when the Yongle Emperor restored it as a dual capital and distinguished it from Nanjing (the "Southern Capital").[11] The name was restored again upon the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The English spelling is based on the pinyin romanization of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. An older English spelling, Peking, is the Postal Map Romanization of the same characters based upon the Chinese dialects spoken in the southern port towns first visited by European traders and missionaries.[12] These dialects preserve the Middle Chinese form of as kjaeng,[13] prior to a phonetic shift in the northern dialects to the modern pronunciation.[14] In Chinese, the one-character abbreviation of Beijing is "", which appears on automobile licence plates in the city. In the Latin alphabet, the official abbreviation consists of the two initials of the region's characters: "BJ".[15]

[edit] History
Main article: History of Beijing

The museum at Zhoukoudian

[edit] Early history

The earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the caves date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic homo sapiens also lived there more recently, about 27,000 years ago.[16] Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality including Wangfujing in downtown Beijing. The first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city-state from the 11th to 7th century BC. Within modern Beijing, Ji was located south of the present Beijing West Railway Station.[17] This settlement was later conquered by the state of Yan and made its capital under the name Yanjing.

[edit] Early Imperial China

The Tianning Pagoda, built around 1120. After the fall of the Yan during the Warring States period, the early imperial dynasties continued to employ the city as the prefectural capital of the area[1] under various names. During the Three Kingdoms period, it was held by Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao before falling to Wei. The AD 3rd-century Western Jin demoted the town, placing the prefectural seat elsewhere, and the Wu Hu emperors of the various "Yan" dynasties of the Sixteen Kingdoms similarly chose other locations for their capitals. The site was revived by the many canals dug by the Sui dynasty to provision Emperor Yang's otherwise disastrous invasion of Korea. Youzhou was a major headquarters under the Tang and, as Fanyang, it was briefly the capital of the Great Yan during the 8th-century An Shi Rebellion.

By 936, the Later Jin Dynasty was forced to cede the entire region to the Khitan Liao dynasty. Two years later, the Liao established a secondary capital at the site, which they called Nanjing (their "Supreme Capital" of Shangjing was located near the modern Baarin Left Banner in Inner Mongolia). Some of the oldest surviving structures in Beijing date to the Liao period, including the Tianning Pagoda. The Liao fell to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the 12th century and the Jin moved their capital to Nanjing in 1153, renaming it Zhongdu, the "Central Capital".[1] The city was besieged by Genghis Khan's invading Mongolian army in 1213 and razed to the ground in two years later.[18] Two generations later, Kublai Khan ordered the creation of Dadu (or Daidu to the Mongols, commonly known as Khanbaliq), was completed in 1293., a new capital for his Yuan dynasty to be located adjacent to the Jin ruins. The construction took from 1264 to 1293,[1][18][19] but greatly enhanced the status of a city on the northern fringe of China proper. The city was centered on the Drum Tower slightly to the north of modern Beijing and stretched from the present-day Chang'an Avenue to the Line 10 subway. Remnants of the Yuan packed earth wall still stand and are known as the Tucheng.[20]

Detail from a 1682 Italian map displaying the region of "Peking" and the capital city of "Peking or Shuntian" (Xuntieu).

[edit] Ming Dynasty

In 1368, soon after declaring the new Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, the rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang sent an army to Khanbaliq and burnt it to the ground.[21] Since the Yuan continued to occupy Shangdu and Mongolia, however, a new town was established to supply the military garrisons in the area.[22] This was called Beiping[23] and under the Hongwu Emperor's feudal policies it was given to Zhu Di, one of his sons, who was created "Prince of Yan".

One of the corner towers of the Forbidden City. The early death of Zhu Yuanzhang's heir led to a succession struggle on his death, one that ended with the victory of Zhu Di and the declaration of the new Yongle era. Since his harsh treatment of the Ming capital Yingtian alienated many there, he established his fief as a new co-capital. The city of Beiping became Shuntian now Beijing in 1403.[11] The construction of the new imperial residence, the Forbidden City, took from 1406 to 1420;[18] this period was also responsible for several other of the modern city's major attractions, such as the Temple of Heaven[24] and Tian'anmen (although the square facing it was not cleared until 1651[25]). When everything was completed in 1421, Beijing became the empire's primary capital (Jingshi) and Yingtian now called Nanjing lost much of its importance. (A 1425 order by Zhu Di's son, the Hongxi Emperor, to return the 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 was built in its place.[26] It is generally believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world for most of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.[27] The first known church was constructed by Catholics in 1652 at the former site of Matteo Ricci's chapel; the modern Nantang Cathedral was later built upon the same site.[28] The capture of Beijing by Li Zicheng's peasant army in 1644 ended the dynasty, but he and his Shun court abandoned the city without a fight when the Manchu army of Prince Dorgon arrived 40 days later.

Map of Beijing, 1914.

[edit] Qing Dynasty

Dorgon established the Qing Dynasty as a direct successor of the Ming (delegitimizing Li Zicheng and his followers)[29] and Beijing became China's sole capital.[30] 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 classic Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber.

A postcard displaying one of the imperial palaces, c. 1900. During the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces captured the city, looting and burning the Old Summer Palace in 1860. Under the Convention of Peking ending that war, Western powers for the first time secured the right to establish permanent diplomatic presences within the city. In 1900, the attempt by the "Boxers" to eradicate this presence, as well as Chinese Christian converts, led to Beijing's reoccupation by foreign powers.[31] During the fighting, several important structures were destroyed, including the Hanlin Academy and the (new) Summer Palace.

[edit] Republican era

The fomenters of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 sought to replace Qing rule with a republic and leaders like Sun Yat-sen originally intended to return the capital to Nanjing. After the Qing general Yuan Shikai 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. Yuan maintained his capital at Beijing and quickly consolidated power, declaring himself emperor in 1915. His death less than a year later[32] left China under the control of the warlords commanding the regional armies. The most powerful factions fought frequent wars the Zhili-Anhui War and the First and Second Zhili-Fengtian War to take control of the capital. Following the success of the Nationalists' Northern Expedition, the capital was formally removed to Nanjing in 1928. On 28 June the same year, Beijing's name was returned to Beiping (written at the time as "Peip'ing").[33][7] During the Second Sino-Japanese War,[7] Beiping fell to Japan on 29 July 1937[34] and was made the seat of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a puppet state that ruled the ethnic-Chinese portions of Japanese-occupied northern China.[35] This government was later merged into the larger Wang Jingwei government based in Nanjing.[36]
People's Republic In the final phases of the Chinese Civil War, the People's Liberation Army seized control of the city peacefully on 31 January 1949 in the course of the Pingjin Campaign. On 1 October that year, Mao Zedong announced the creation of the People's Republic of China from atop Tian'anmen. He restored the name of the city, as the new capital, to Beijing,[37] a decision that had been reached by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference 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 and residential neighborhoods in the north. Many areas of the Beijing city wall were torn down in the 1960s to make way for the construction of the Beijing Subway and the 2nd Ring Road. During the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the Red Guard movement began in Beijing and the city's government fell victim to one of the first purges. By the fall of 1966, all city schools were shut down and over a million Red Guards from across the country gathered in Beijing for eight rallies in Tian'anmen Square with Mao.[38] In April 1976, a large public gathering of Beijing residents against the Gang of Four and the Cultural Revolution in Tiananmen Square was forcefully suppressed. In October 1976, the Gang was arrested in Zhongnanhai and the Cultural Revolution came to an end. In December 1978, the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress in Beijing under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping reversed the verdicts against victims of the Cultural Revolution and instituted the "policy of reform and opening up." Since the early 1980s, the urban area of Beijing has expanded greatly with the completion of the 2nd Ring Road in 1981 and the subsequent addition of the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th Ring Roads.[39][40] According to one 2005 newspaper report, the size of newly-developed Beijing was one-and-a-half times larger than

before.[41] Wangfujing and Xidan have developed into flourishing shopping districts,[42] while Zhongguancun has become a major center of electronics in China.[43] In recent years, the expansion of Beijing has also brought to the forefront some problems of urbanization, such as heavy traffic, poor air quality, the loss of historic neighborhoods, and a significant influx of migrants from less-developed areas of the country.[44] Beijing has also been the location of many significant events in recent Chinese history, principally the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989[45] and the 2008 Summer Olympics.[46] [edit] Geography Main article: Geography of Beijing

Beijing satellite view from Landsat 5 8 August 2010

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

Beijing is situated at the northern tip of the roughly triangular North China Plain, which opens to the south and east of the city. Mountains to the north, northwest and west shield the city and northern China's agricultural heartland from the encroaching desert steppes. The northwestern part of the municipality, especially Yanqing County and Huairou District, are dominated by the Jundu Mountains, while the western part is framed by the Western Hills, or Xishan. The Great Wall of China, which stretches across the northern part of Beijing Municipality, made use of this rugged topography to defend against nomadic incursions from the steppes. Mount Dongling, in the Western Hills and on the border with Hebei, is the municipality's highest point, with an altitude of 2,303 metres (7,556 ft). Major rivers flowing through the municipality include the Yongding River and the Chaobai River, part of the Hai River system, and flow in a southerly direction. Beijing is also the northern terminus of the Grand Canal of China, which was built across the North China Plain to Hangzhou. Miyun Reservoir, built on the upper reaches of the Chaobai River, is Beijing's largest reservoir, and crucial to its water supply.

The Beijing Botanical Garden The urban area of Beijing is in the south-central part of the municipality and occupies a small but expanding portion of the municipality's area. It spreads out in bands of concentric ring roads, of which the fifth and outermost, the Sixth Ring Road (the numbering starts at two), passes through several satellite towns. Tian'anmen and Tian'anmen Square are at the center of Beijing, directly to the south of the Forbidden City, the former residence of the emperors of China. To the west of Tian'anmen is Zhongnanhai, home to the paramount leaders of the PRC. Running through central Beijing from east to west is Chang'an Avenue, one of the city's main thoroughfares. [edit] Climate Beijing has a rather dry, monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Kppen climate classification Dwa), characterized by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon, and generally cold, windy, dry winters that reflect the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone.[47] Spring can bear witness to sandstorms blowing in from the Mongolian steppe, accompanied by rapidly warming, but generally dry, conditions. Autumn, like spring, sees little rain, but is crisp and short. The monthly daily average temperature in January is 3.7 C (25.3 F), while in July it is 26.2 C (79.2 F). Precipitation averages around 570 mm (22.4 in) annually, with the great majority of it falling in the summer months. Extremes

have ranged from 27.4 C (17 F) to 42.6 C (109 F).[48]

[hide]Climate data for Beijing (19712000) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year

3.7 Average 1.8 5.0 11.6 20.3 26.0 30.2 30.9 29.7 25.8 19.1 10.1 17.9 (38.7 high C (F) (35.2) (41.0) (52.9) (68.5) (78.8) (86.4) (87.6) (85.5) (78.4) (66.4) (50.2) (64.2) ) 5.8 Average 8.4 5.6 0.4 7.9 13.6 18.8 22.0 20.8 14.8 7.9 0.0 7.2 (21.6 low C (F) (16.9) (21.9) (32.7) (46.2) (56.5) (65.8) (71.6) (69.4) (58.6) (46.2) (32.0) (45.0) ) Precipitatio 2.7 4.9 8.3 21.2 34.2 78.1 185.2 159.7 45.5 21.8 7.4 2.8 571.8 n mm (0.106 (0.193 (0.327 (0.835 (1.346 (3.075 (7.291 (6.287 (1.791 (0.858 (0.291 (0.11 (22.51 (inches) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) 2) % humidity 44 Avg. precipitatio 1.8 n days ( 0.1 mm) Mean monthly sunshine hours 44 46 46 53 61 75 77 68 61 57 49 56.8

2.3

3.3

4.3

5.8

9.7

13.6

12.0

7.6

5.0

3.5

1.7

70.6

194.1 194.7 231.8 251.9 283.4 261.4 212.4 220.9 232.1 222.1 185.3

180. 2,670.8 7

Source: China Meteorological Administration [49]

[edit] 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 3560% of the ozone can be traced to sources outside the city. Shandong Province and Tianjin Municipality have a "significant influence on Beijing's air quality",[50] partly due to the prevailing south/southeasterly flow during the summer and the mountains to the north and northwest.

Heavy air pollution has resulted in widespread smog. These photographs, taken in August 2005, show the variations in Beijing's air quality. In preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics and to fulfill promises to clean up the city's air, nearly 17 billion USD was spent. Beijing also implemented a number of air improvement schemes for the duration of the Games, including stopping work on all construction sites, closing many factories in and around Beijing, closing some gas stations,[51] and cutting motor traffic by half by limiting drivers to odd or even days (based on their license plate numbers)[52] Two new subway lines were opened and thousands of old taxis and buses were replaced to encourage residents to use public transport. The Beijing government encouraged a discussion to keep the odd-even scheme in place after the Olympics,[53] and although the scheme was eventually lifted on 21 September 2008, it was replaced by new restrictions on government vehicles[54] and a new restriction that does not allow the use of a car once a week.[55][56] In addition, staggered office hours and retail opening times have been encouraged to avoid the rush hour, and parking fees were increased. Beijing became the first city in China to require the Chinese equivalent to the Euro 4 emission standard.[57] Some 357,000 "yellow label" vehicles (whose emission levels are too high) have been banned from Beijing altogether.[55][58] The government regularly uses cloud-seeding measures to increase the likelihood of rain showers in the region to clear the air prior to large events[59] as well as to combat drought conditions in the area. According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), China has spent $17 billion over the last three years on a large-scale green drive.[60] Beijing has added 3,800 natural gas buses, one of the largest fleets in the world.[60] Twenty percent of the Olympic venues' electricity comes from renewable energy sources.[61] The city has also planted hundreds of thousands of trees and increased green space in an effort to make the city more livable.[62] One year after the 2008 Olympics, Beijing's officials reported that the city was enjoying the best air quality this decade because of the measures taken during the Games. Nonetheless, Beijing still faces air pollution problems.[63][64] The US embassy recorded levels of pollution beyond measurable levels on 21 February 2011, and advised people to stay indoors as a thick smog was covering the city.[65] Daily pollution readings at 27 monitoring stations around the city are reported on the website of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau (BJEPB).[66] The United States Embassy in Beijing also reports hourly fine particulate (PM2.5) and ozone levels on Twitter.[67] Although the BJEPB and US Embassy measure different pollutants according to different criteria the media has noted that pollution levels and

the impact to human health reported by the BJEPB are often lower than that reported by the US Embassy.[67] [edit] Dust storms Dust from the erosion of deserts in northern and northwestern China results in seasonal dust storms that plague the city; the Beijing Weather Modification Office sometimes artificially induces rainfall to fight such storms and mitigate their effects.[68] In the first four months of 2006 alone, there were no fewer than eight such storms.[69] In April 2002, one dust storm alone dumped nearly 50,000 tons of dust onto the city before moving on to Japan and Korea.[70] [edit] Politics and government Main article: Politics of Beijing Municipal government is regulated by the local Communist Party of China (CPC), led by the Beijing CPC Secretary (). The local CPC 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 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.[71] [edit] Administrative divisions Main articles: List of administrative divisions of Beijing and List of township-level divisions of Beijing Beijing Municipality currently comprises 16 administrative county-level subdivisions including 14 urban and suburban districts and two rural counties. On 1 July 2010, Chongwen () and Xuanwu Districts () were merged into Dongcheng and Xicheng Districts, respectively. Densit Populatio Area y Chinese n (km) (per (2010)[72] km)

Map

District / County

Dongchen g District Xicheng District

919,000

40.6

22,635

1,243,000 46.5

26,731

Chaoyang

3,545,000 470.8 7,530

Dongcheng Xicheng 1. Shijingshan Chaoyang Haidian Fengtai 1 Mentougou Fangshan Tongzhou Shunyi Changping Daxing Pinggu Miyun Yanqing Huairou

District Haidian District Fengtai District 3,281,000 426.0 7,702

2,112,000 304.2 6,943

Shijingsha n District Tongzhou District Shunyi District

616,000

89.8

6,860

1,184,000 870.0 1,361

877,000

980.0 895 1,430. 1,162 0 1,012. 1,349 0 1,331. 218 3 1,866. 506 7 1,075. 387 0 2,557. 146 3 2,335. 200 6 1,980. 160 0

Changping District Daxing District

1,661,000

1,365,000

Mentougo u District Fangshan District Pinggu District Huairou District Miyun County Yanqing County

290,000

945,000

416,000

373,000

468,000

317,000

Color key

Old city formerly enclosed by city walls, now inside the 2nd Ring Road

Urban districts between the 2nd and 5th Ring Road Inner suburbs linked by the 6th Ring Road Outer suburbs and rural areas.