Beijing, the name meaning Northern Capital, has stood as the political heart of China for most of the past eight centuries, yet its origins stretch back over three millennia to the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near Zhoukoudian. Here, Homo erectus fossils dating from 230,000 to 250,000 years ago reveal the earliest traces of human habitation in the region, predating the first walled city of Jicheng built in 1045 BC. The city has undergone a relentless cycle of destruction and rebirth, serving as the capital for the state of Ji, the Yan dynasty, and later the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Each ruling power left its mark, from the Tianning Pagoda constructed around 1120 during the Liao dynasty to the massive Forbidden City built between 1406 and 1420 under the Yongle Emperor. The name Beijing itself was applied in 1403 to distinguish it from Nanjing, the Southern Capital, and has remained the official designation since the founding of the People's Republic of China on the 1st of October 1949. Today, with more than 22 million residents, it is the world's most populous national capital, a global city that hosts the headquarters of most of China's largest state-owned companies and houses the largest number of Fortune Global 500 companies in the world.
Empires And Destruction
The history of Beijing is written in the ruins of its predecessors, as the city has been razed and rebuilt multiple times throughout its existence. In 1213, the city was besieged by Genghis Khan's invading Mongolian army and razed to the ground two years later, only to be replaced by Kublai Khan's Dadu, or Khanbaliq, which was constructed from 1264 to 1293. The Ming dynasty rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang captured Dadu in 1368 and razed the Yuan palaces to the ground, renaming the city Beiping, or Northern Peace, before his son Zhu Di established it as the primary capital in 1403. The Qing dynasty, which succeeded the Ming, maintained the general layout of the city but introduced facilities for Manchu worship and built palatial gardens like the Old Summer Palace and the Summer Palace. The Second Opium War saw Anglo-French forces capture the outskirts of the city and burn the Old Summer Palace in 1860, while the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 led to the Battle of Peking and the destruction of the Hanlin Academy and the new Summer Palace. The peace agreement signed on the 7th of September 1901 required China to pay an indemnity of US$335 million plus interest over 39 years, and the foreign armies left Beijing ten days after the treaty was signed, though legation guards remained until World War II.The Modern Metropolis
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. The city has transformed from a traditional imperial capital into a modern metropolis, with the Beijing Central Business District serving as a center for economic expansion and the Zhongguancun area becoming a world-leading center of scientific and technological innovation. The city has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable being the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2008 Summer Paralympics Games, and in 2022, Beijing became the first city ever to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, as well as the Summer and Winter Paralympics. The city's architecture contains elements of both traditional Chinese architecture with modern styles, with one side of the city being modernized and renovated, and the other half still offering traditional hutong districts. Beijing Daxing International Airport, the city's second international airport, is the largest single-structure airport terminal in the world, and the Beijing subway was the fourth busiest and second longest in the world in 2020.