Beijing

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Chinese name

北京 (Běijīng)

Abbreviation (简称)

京 (Jīng)

Type

Municipality

Region

North China

Seat of government

Tongzhou District (seat of the municipal government)

Area

about 16,410 km²

Divisions

16 districts

Ethnic groups

Han, Manchu, Hui, Mongol

Languages

Beijing dialect, Standard Mandarin

Neighbours

Hebei, Tianjin

Languages

• Beijing dialect

  北京话 (Běijīnghuà)

  The Mandarin of the city, on whose pronunciation standard Mandarin (普通话) is based; known for its retroflex “er” endings (儿化) and a rich slang.

• Standard Mandarin

  普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà)

  The national standard language, spoken by practically all residents, many of whom have moved from other provinces.

名称

Name and abbreviation

Běijīng simply means “northern capital”. The Yongle Emperor of the Ming gave the city the name in 1403, when he raised his old power base to a second capital alongside Nanjing, the “southern capital”; the court moved north in 1421. Between 1928 and 1949, when the Nationalist government sat in Nanjing, the city was called Beiping, “northern peace”. The abbreviation 京 means “capital” and has been used for the city since the Ming. The older romanisation Peking survives in names such as Peking University, Peking opera and Peking duck.

Historic names

• 蓟 (Jì)

  The earliest recorded city on the site, capital of the Zhou-era state of Ji and later of the state of Yan.

• 幽州 (Yōuzhōu)

  Name of the frontier prefecture centred on the city from the Han to the Tang dynasty.

• 燕京 (Yānjīng)

  “capital of Yan”

  Literary name recalling the ancient state of Yan; the Liao made the city their southern capital in 938.

• 大都 (Dàdū)

  “great capital”

  Kublai Khan's capital, built from 1267 and known to the Mongols and to Marco Polo as Khanbaliq, “city of the khan”.

• 北平 (Běipíng)

  “northern peace”

  Name used in 1368–1403 and again in 1928–1949, when the capital was elsewhere.

地理

Land and climate

Landforms

• Yanshan Mountains

  燕山 (Yān Shān)

  The range across the north of the municipality, crossed by the Great Wall at Badaling, Mutianyu and Simatai.

• Western Hills

  西山 (Xī Shān)

  The northern end of the Taihang range, long a retreat of temples, imperial gardens and villas; Xiangshan (Fragrant Hills) is its best-known park.

• Mount Dongling

  东灵山 (Dōnglíng Shān)

  At about 2,303 m the highest point in Beijing, in Mentougou district on the border with Hebei.

• North China Plain

  华北平原 (Huáběi Píngyuán)

  The alluvial plain on which the city stands; Beijing occupies its north-western corner.

Rivers and lakes

• Yongding River

  永定河 (Yǒngdìng Hé)

  Flows out of the Western Hills past the Marco Polo Bridge; its old flood fans formed the ground on which the city was built.

• Chaobai River

  潮白河 (Cháobái Hé)

  Drains the northern mountains; its Miyun Reservoir is the city's main surface-water store.

• North Canal

  北运河 (Běi Yùnhé)

  The northernmost section of the Grand Canal, ending at Tongzhou, where grain barges from the south once unloaded.

• Juma River

  拒马河 (Jùmǎ Hé)

  Clear mountain river in the far south-west, flowing through the karst scenery of Shidu.

Climate

Beijing has a monsoon-influenced continental climate. Winters are cold, dry and sunny, with north-westerly winds from Mongolia; summers are hot and humid, with most of the year's rain falling in July and August, sometimes in violent storms. Spring is short, windy and dry, and was once notorious for dust storms from the north-west. Autumn — clear, mild and still — is the season most residents consider the best.

历史

History

1. c. 1045 BCE

   The Zhou enfeoff the states of Ji and Yan

   The walled town of Ji and the Yan capital at Liulihe in Fangshan mark the beginning of urban history in the Beijing area.

2. 938

   The Liao make the city their southern capital

   The Khitan Liao, who had acquired the Sixteen Prefectures from a northern Chinese ruler, turned the frontier town into one of their five capitals, known as Nanjing or Yanjing.

3. 1153

   Jin capital Zhongdu

   The Jurchen Jin moved their main capital here; it was the first time the city served as the seat of a dynasty ruling much of northern China.

4. 1267

   Construction of Dadu begins

   Kublai Khan built a new, planned capital north-east of the ruined Jin city; its north–south axis and grid of lanes underlie the centre of Beijing today.

5. 1421

   The Ming court moves to Beijing

   The Yongle Emperor completed the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven and made Beijing the principal capital, which it remained for most of the next five centuries.

6. 1644

   Fall of the Ming and entry of the Qing

   Li Zicheng's rebels took the city and the last Ming emperor hanged himself on Coal Hill; weeks later the Manchu army entered and made Beijing the Qing capital.

7. 1860

   Burning of the Old Summer Palace

   British and French troops looted and burned the Yuanmingyuan at the end of the Second Opium War.

8. 1900

   Boxer Uprising and the siege of the Legations

   Boxers and Qing troops besieged the foreign legations until an eight-nation force relieved them and occupied the city.

9. 4 May 1919

   May Fourth Movement

   Student protests in Beijing against the Versailles settlement grew into a movement for cultural and political renewal.

10. 7 July 1937

    Marco Polo Bridge Incident

    A clash between Chinese and Japanese troops at the bridge south-west of the city marked the start of full-scale war between China and Japan.

11. 1 October 1949

    Proclamation of the People's Republic

    Mao Zedong proclaimed the new state from Tiananmen, and Beijing became the national capital again.

12. 2008 and 2022

    Summer and Winter Olympic Games

    Beijing became the first city to host both the Summer and the Winter Olympics.

13. 2019

    Daxing International Airport opens; municipal government moves to Tongzhou

    The city's second major airport opened in the south, and the municipal administration relocated to the new sub-centre in Tongzhou.

14. 2024

    Central Axis inscribed as World Heritage

    The 7.8-km north–south axis from Yongdingmen to the Bell and Drum Towers became Beijing's eighth World Heritage site.

遗产

World heritage

文化

Culture

Opera, music and dance

• Peking opera

  京剧 (jīngjù)

  Opera with stylised movement, painted faces and role types; Mei Lanfang made it known abroad in the 1920s and 1930s.

• Crosstalk

  相声 (xiàngsheng)

  Comic dialogue built on wordplay and timing, developed in the markets of Tianqiao in the nineteenth century.

• Beijing drum ballad

  京韵大鼓 (jīngyùn dàgǔ)

  Storytelling in song, accompanied by a small drum, clappers and three-stringed lute.

Crafts

• Cloisonné enamel

  景泰蓝 (jǐngtàilán)

  Enamel fired within copper wire cells on a copper body, named after the Jingtai reign (1450–1457) of the Ming.

• Carved lacquer

  雕漆 (diāoqī)

  Dozens of layers of red lacquer built up and carved in relief, a palace craft of the Ming and Qing.

• Lord Rabbit

  兔儿爷 (tùr yé)

  Clay figures of the moon rabbit in armour, made for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

• Swallow kites

  沙燕风筝 (shāyàn fēngzheng)

  Bamboo-and-paper kites in the shape of a swallow, painted in bold colours.

Festivals and customs

• Temple fairs

  庙会 (miàohuì)

  Spring Festival fairs at Ditan, Longtan and other parks with snacks, folk performances and craft stalls.

• Hutong life

  胡同 (hútòng)

  Neighbourhood life in the old lanes, whose name is thought to come from a Mongolian word; many were cleared, but areas around the Drum Tower and Qianmen survive.

• Airing songbirds

  遛鸟 (liù niǎo)

  Older residents carry caged larks and thrushes to the parks at dawn and hang them in the trees to sing.

饮食

Cuisine

Signature dishes

• Peking duck

  北京烤鸭 (Běijīng kǎoyā)

  Roast duck carved at the table and wrapped in thin pancakes with scallion, cucumber and sweet bean sauce; roasted either in a closed oven or over an open fruit-wood fire.

• Noodles with fried bean sauce

  炸酱面 (zhájiàngmiàn)

  Wheat noodles with a thick sauce of fried pork and fermented soybean paste, served with shredded vegetables.

• Instant-boiled mutton

  涮羊肉 (shuàn yángròu)

  Thin slices of mutton dipped in a copper hotpot of plain water and eaten with sesame sauce.

• Quick-boiled tripe

  爆肚 (bàodǔ)

  Lamb or beef tripe blanched for seconds and dipped in sesame sauce, a Hui snack.

• Fermented mung-bean drink

  豆汁 (dòuzhī)

  Sour, grey and famously divisive; drunk hot with pickles and fried rings.

• “Rolling donkey”

  驴打滚 (lǘdǎgǔn)

  Glutinous-rice rolls filled with red-bean paste and dusted with soybean flour.

• Candied haws

  冰糖葫芦 (bīngtáng húlu)

  Hawthorn fruits on a skewer coated in hard sugar, a winter street snack.

特产

Specialities

• Erguotou

  二锅头 (èrguōtóu)

  Light-aroma sorghum baijiu, the everyday spirit of Beijing; the name refers to the “second pot” of the distilling process.

• Beijing preserved fruits

  北京果脯 (Běijīng guǒfǔ)

  Apricots, peaches, pears and dates candied in syrup and dried, a traditional gift from the capital.

• Liubiju pickles

  六必居酱菜 (Liùbìjū jiàngcài)

  Vegetables pickled in sweet soybean paste by one of the city's oldest shops, near Qianmen.

• Tongrentang medicine

  同仁堂 (Tóngréntáng)

  Traditional pharmacy founded in 1669 that supplied the Qing court and remains the best-known name in Chinese medicine.

人物

Notable people

• Kublai Khan (1215–1294)

  忽必烈 (Hūbìliè)

  Founder of the Yuan dynasty, who built Dadu as his capital.

• Guan Hanqing (c. 1220–c. 1300)

  关汉卿 (Guān Hànqīng)

  The foremost playwright of Yuan drama, active in Dadu; author of The Injustice to Dou E.

• Cao Xueqin (c. 1715–c. 1763)

  曹雪芹 (Cáo Xuěqín)

  Author of Dream of the Red Chamber, written in Beijing, where he spent his later years in poverty in the Western Hills.

• Mei Lanfang (1894–1961)

  梅兰芳 (Méi Lánfāng)

  Beijing-born Peking opera performer of female roles, whose tours to Japan, the United States and the Soviet Union introduced the form abroad.

• Lao She (1899–1966)

  老舍 (Lǎo Shě)

  Manchu writer born in Beijing, author of Rickshaw Boy and the play Teahouse, both set in the city.

经济

Economy

Main industries

• Finance, including the headquarters of the state banks and regulators
• Information technology, software and internet platforms
• Scientific research and higher education
• Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology
• New-energy and intelligent vehicles
• Culture, media, publishing and tourism

Zones, ports and hubs

• Zhongguancun

  中关村 (Zhōngguāncūn)

  The technology district in Haidian next to Peking and Tsinghua universities, and the national demonstration zone for innovation named after it.

• Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (Yizhuang)

  北京经济技术开发区 (Běijīng Jīngjì Jìshù Kāifāqū)

  The city's main manufacturing zone in the south-east, focused on electronics, biomedicine and automotive technology.

• Beijing sub-centre

  北京城市副中心 (Běijīng Chéngshì Fùzhōngxīn)

  The administrative new town in Tongzhou, seat of the municipal government since 2019.

• China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone

  中国（北京）自由贸易试验区 (Zhōngguó (Běijīng) Zìyóu Màoyì Shìyànqū)

  Established in 2020 with areas for technology, international business services and the Daxing airport zone.

Trade and business with China →

交通

Getting there

• Beijing has two major international airports: Beijing Capital International in the north-east and Beijing Daxing International, opened in 2019 on the border with Hebei in the south.
• The city is the hub of China's rail network. Beijing South serves the high-speed lines to Tianjin and Shanghai, Beijing West the lines to Shijiazhuang, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Xi'an, Beijing North the line to Zhangjiakou, and Beijing Chaoyang the line to the north-east; Beijing Station and Beijing Fengtai handle further routes.
• Beijing has no seaport of its own; cruise ships and container traffic use Tianjin on the Bohai coast.

Travel guide: beijing

Entry rules for foreign visitors are on the visa and entry pages.