Beijing History
Early history
The earliest remnants of human habitation in the Beijing municipality are found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District. The Homo erectus fossils from the caves date from 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic homo sapiens also lived there about 27,000 years ago. There were cities in the vicinities of Beijing by the 1st millennium BC and the capital of the State of Yan. One of the powers of the Warring States Period (473-221 BC), Ji, was established in today's Beijing.
After the fall of the Yan, the subsequent Qin, Han, and Jin dynasties, set up local prefectures in the area. It became headquarter of Fanyang jiedushi During the Tang Dynasty. An Lushan launched An Shi Rebellion from here in 755 AD.
Medieval period
The Pagoda of Tianning Temple, counts thirteen stories and is 57.8 m (189 ft) in height. It was built in 1120 during the Liao Dynasty. In 936, the Hou Jin Dynasty (936-947) of northern China, ceded a large part of its northern frontier (including modern Beijing) to the Khitan Liao Dynasty. In 938, the Liao Dynasty set up a second capital which is now known as Beijing, but called Nanjing (the "Southern Capital") during the Liao Dynasty. The Jurchen Jin Dynasty conquered Liao in 1125 and moved its capital to Nanjing in 1153, calling it Zhongdu, "the central capital". Zhongdu was situated in what is now the area centered around Tianningsi, slightly southwest of central Beijing. Some of the oldest existing relics in Beijing, including the Niujie Mosque and the Tianning Temple, are dated from the Liao era.
Paragraph is copy pasted
Mongols gave the order to burn Zhongdu to the ground in 1215 and rebuilt it to the north of the Jin capital in 1267. In preparation for the conquest of all China, Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty founder Kublai Khan made this his capital as Dadu (Chinese for "great capital"), or Khanbaliq to the Mongols, otherwise named Cambuluc in Marco Polo's accounts. Construction of Dadu finished in 1293. The decision of the Khan greatly enhanced the status of a city that had been situated on the northern fringe of China. Dadu was situated north of modern central Beijing. It centered on what is now the northern stretch of the 2nd Ring Road, and stretched northwards to between the 3rd and 4th Ring Roads. There are remnants of the Yuan-era wall still standing and they are known as the Tucheng (literally, the 'earth wall').
Ming and Qing period
The city was later rebuilt by the Ming Dynasty and Shuntian after the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in 1368. In 1403, the new (and third) Ming emperor - the Young Emperor - designated Beijing to be the co-capital alongside the (then) current capital of Nanjing. The new capital was renamed Beiping "northern peace". Beijing was the subject of a major construction project for a new Imperial residence: the Forbidden City. The project lasted for nearly 15 years (1406 to 1420). When the palace was finished, the Young Emperor ceremoniously took up residence. The city was renamed, yet again as Beijing, or "northern capital" and from 1421 onwards, Beijing was the "official" capital of the Ming Empire while Nanjing was demoted to the status of "secondary" capital. This system of dual capitals (with Beijing being vastly more important) continued during the Ming Dynasty. Thirteen of the sixteen Ming Emperors are buried in elaborate tombs near Beijing.
By the 15th century, Beijing had essentially taken its current shape. The Ming-era city wall served as the Beijing city wall until modern times until it was removed and replaced by the 2nd Ring Road of nowadays. It is believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world from 1425 to 1650 and from 1710 to 1825. Other notable buildings constructed during the Ming period include the Temple of Heaven (built by 1420). The Tiananmen, now a state symbol of the People's Republic of China and featured on its emblem, was first built in 1420, and rebuilt several times later. The Tiananmen Square was built in 1651 and enlarged in 1958. Jesuits finished building the first Beijing-area Roman Catholic Church in 1652 at the Xuanwu Gate, where Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci lived. The modern Nantang (Southern Cathedral) has been built over the original cathedral.
The end of the Ming Dynasty came in 1644 when Li Zicheng's peasant army captured Beijing for 40 days and overthrew the Ming government. When the powerful Manchu army arrived at the outskirts of the city, Li and his followers abandoned the city, as a result that the Manchu (under Prince Dorgon) captured Beijing without a fight.
Prince Dorgon established the Qing Dynasty as a direct successor to the Ming and Beijing remained the capital of China. The Qing Emperors made some modifications to the Imperial residence but a large part of the Ming buildings and the general layout remained unchanged. Beijing was also known as Jingshi at this time, which corresponded to the Manchu Gemun Hecen with the same meaning. The classic Chinese novel “Dream of the Red Chamber" is set in Beijing during the early years of Qing rule (the end of the 16 century).
At the end of the Qing period, Beijing was the scene of the siege of the foreign legations during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. Some important Imperial structures in the city were destroyed during the fighting. This includes the Hanlin Academy and the Summer Palace, just outside the city.
Republican era
The Xinhai Revolution of 1911, aimed to replace the Qing ruler with a republic, originally intended to establish its capital at Nanjing. After high-ranking Qing official Yuan Shikai forced the abdication of the Qing emperor in Beijing and ensured the success of the revolution, the revolutionaries in Nanjing accepted that Yuan should be the president of the new Republic of China and that the capital should remain at Beijing. Yuan gradually consolidated power and became the new emperor by 1915 but died less than a year into his reign. China then fell under the control of regional warlords. The most powerful factions fought frequent wars (the Zhili-Anhui War, the First Zhili-Fengtian War, and the Second Zhili-Fengtian War) to take control of the capital Beijing. Following the success of the Kuomintang (KMT)'s Northern Expedition, which pacified the warlords of the north, Nanjing was officially made the capital of the Republic of China in 1928 and Beijing was renamed Beiping (Peip'ing) on June the 28th in that year. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese conquered Beiping and made it the seat of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, who acted as a puppet regime for the Japanese to rule the ethnic Chinese portions of Japanese-occupied northern China. The government was later merged into the larger Wang Jingwei Government, based in Nanjing.
People's Republic
Communist forces entered Beiping without a fight On the 31st of January in 1949 during the Chinese Civil War. On October the 1st of the same year, the Communist Party of China, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, announced in Tiananmen the creation of the People's Republic of China and renamed the city back to Beijing. Just a few days earlier, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference had decided that Beijing would be the capital of the new government.
Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. At the time of the founding of the People's Republic, Beijing Municipality consisted of just its urban area and immediate suburbs. The urban area was divided into many small districts inside what is now the 2nd Ring Road. The Beijing city wall was being demolished to make way for the construction of the 2nd Ring Road, which was finished by 1981 in accordance to the 1982 city plan. That road was the first of a series of new ring roads intended for automobiles rather than for bicycles.
A man stands before a column of tanks sent to Tiananmen Square to suppress the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Following the economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping, the urban area of Beijing has expanded greatly. Formerly within the confines of the 2nd Ring Road and the 3rd Ring Road, the urban area of Beijing is now pushing at the limits of the recently constructed 5th Ring Road and 6th Ring Road, with many areas that were formerly farmland now developed residential or commercial districts. According to a 2005 newspaper report, the size of the newly developed Beijing land was one and a half times larger than that of old Beijing within the 2nd Ring Road. Wangfujing and Xidan have developed into flourishing shopping districts, while Zhongguancun has become a major centre of electronics in China. The expansion of Beijing in recent years has also brought to the forefront some problems of urbanization, such as heavy traffic, poor air quality, the loss of historic neighborhoods and significant influx of migrants from poorer regions of the country, especially rural areas.
On July 13, 2001, the International Olympic Committee selected Beijing as the host for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
