"From Ji to Beijing" a Beijing Travel Page by seagoingJLW

Beijing, the capital of the People's Republic of China, is located in the northern part of the North China Plain. It has an area of 16.807.8 sq km.

The winters are cold and dry due to the Siberian air masses. The summers are hot because of the monsoon winds from the southeast. The summer months, June to August, are wet, with 40% of the annual precipitation.

The population of Beijing is 13.82 million, with its permanent residents coming from all of China's 56 ethnic groups. The Han nationality makes up 96.5% of the total. Most of the others are from the Hui, Manchu, and Mongolian nationalities.

History

During the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) the Marquee of Yan annexed the territory of Ji and made the city his new capital. Ji was located north of Guang'anmen Gate in present day Beijing. In the third century BC the first Qin Emperor set about unifying China. Ji was named administrative center of Guangyang commandery, one of 36 prefectures in this first Chinese feudal empire.

For ten centuries until the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) Ji was the object of frequent power struggles. The Qidans occupied Ji and made it their second capital, calling it Yanjing.

In the early 12th century, the Nuzhen conquered the Liao and established the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234.) The city was rebuilt and called Zhongdu.

Mongol armies occupied Zhongdu in 1216 and it was given provincial status. (The city of Kaiping was the principal Mongol capital.) Kublai Khan formally adopted the new dynasty's name, Yuan, and gave the city the new name of Dadu (Great Capital.)

On August 2, 1368, Ming troops seized Dadu and renamed it Beiping (Northern Peace.) The founder of the Ming Dynasty, however, shifted the capital to Nanjing (Southern Capital) where it remained until 1420.

Extensive reconstruction w;as carried out at the start of the Ming Dynasty. During the Ming and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, Beijing emerged as an artchitectural masterpiece. A north-south axis bisects the city with the Imperial Palace in the middle. The Palace was known as Danei (the Great Within) to the Yuan. It was renamed the Forbidden City by the Ming, and more recently has been called the Palace Museum.

Following the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, Beijing remained the political center of China until 1928. The Nationalist Party moved the capital to Nanjing and changed Beijing back to Beiping.

It was occupied by the Japanese invaders from 1937 to 1945, but became the capital again with the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Beiping then resumed its old name of Beijing.