How did Beijing come into being?
According to the historical records and the research by historians and geologists, the area around Beijing was a gulf two or three million years ago.
Geographical distribution of Beijing is like this: Beijing was called "Beijing Gulf" because it is semi-enclosed by the Taihang Mountains to the west and the Yanshan Mountains to the north, with the Bohai Bay to its east and facing the Great Hebei Plain to the south. Millions of years later, the enormous amounts of mud carried by the melting ice and snow in spring and the heavy rains in summer silt down from the mountain valleys into the gulf, then the gulf was transformed into an alluvial plain known as theBeijing Sub-plain today. The surrounding mountains offered aprotection screen from the strong northern winds. Wet air blewfrom the sea to the east. A vast plain stretched out to the southand with the rivers and streams length and breadth. Thedifferent landforms and a temperate climate with plentiful rainfall made this sub-plain a suitable environment for human to settle down. Then it became the pivot connected with northeast,northwest and the central plains. It was also the communicationand transportation center of the north and south in China. Herewas the cradle of the human settlement where our originancestor-Peking Man was bred, the earliest inhabitants of the Beijing Sub-plain.

Beijing History - Peking Man Period
Peking Man, or Peking ape-man, a primitive caveman livedsome 500,000 to 700,000 years ago at Dragon Bone Hill by theTown of Zhoukoudian, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of Beijing (Dragon Bone Hill noted for its largequantities of Chinese medicine: dragon bone). The firstcompleted skull of Peking Man was discovered in December 1929by Pei Wenzhong, a well-known Chinese paleoanthropologist.
The fossils of the Upper Cave Man were found in the caveabove the Peking Man. They lived about 18,000 years ago. They were much nearer to themodern man. They could sew pieces of animalhides into a covering and the primitive womenhad already developed the sense of beauty bymaking necklaces with seashells, stones andanimal teeth. Furthermore, they already showed their appreciation of red color, in In about one or two thousand years BC, some smallsettlements began to appear on the Beijing Sub-plain. One ofthem was located around the present Guanganmen site (Gate of Broad Peace) in southwestern Beijing. As time went on,Guanganmen settlement became a center for north and southcommunications. With the development of production and theincrease in commerce, it grew into a prosperous market town inthe Zhou Dynasty, and then it was called City of "Ji" or"Jicheng". That was probably the earliest appearance of Beijing.But there was no detailed record to prove the year of the city. So the arguments on the topic for the exact founding year of the city of "Ji' among the historians lasted for many years. But later,according to the historical records, the historian and professor Mr. Zhao Guangxian got the result: The year when King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty overthrew the Shang Dynasty (16th-llthcentury BC) and enfeoffed prince Shao to the region of Yan, is the year when the city appeared. So later, according to thecalendar, records, astronomical phenomena and the Halley Comet, the year of 1045BC is considered as the appearance year of Beijing city. In 1995 a grand celebration was held in Beijing to commemorate the Beijing city's 3,040th anniversary. The year of 2003 is the 3,048th anniversary of Beijing.

Beijing was first recorded as the city of "Ji" or "Jicheng".Later in the 11th century BC, the Kingdom of Yan established its capital at Ji, and named it Yanjing. Jicheng served as the capital of Yan for eight to nine hundred years and it was an important metropolis in north China.

In 221 BC, during the QinDynasty, Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty,defeated other six kingdoms and established a unified centralized state with its capital in Xianyang (in present Shaanxi). The state of Yan ceased to exist and Jicheng became an ordinary prefectural town. But it was still regarded as a major trading center and a place of strategic importance. But it was in no position to compare with the capital cities of Xianyang, Changan of the Han, Sui and Tang dynasties. So Ji just remained as just another northern town.

In the Sui Dynasty, it was named "Zhuo Jun". During the Tang Dynasty, Jicheng was renamed"Youzhou' with its capital in Changan (Xi'an today).

In the 10th century, the Khitan, a Mongolian tribe from the West Liao River area in northern China established the Liao Dynasty in 947. And than the Tang Dynasty was succeeded byhe Song in the south and the Liao in the north. In 936 Liao occupied "Youzhou" and named it Nanjing (Southern Capital)and designed it a secondary capital of the Liao Dynasty. In 938,the city became one of the five capitals of the Kingdom of Liao(947-1125AD). Since then, the historical position of the city had changed tremendously. It changed gradually from a city of military strategic importance to the political center of the whole country. However the city was soon renamed "Yanjing'. Eversince then, the city had been the capital city for five dynasties;they are Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties until the1911 Revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

As time went on, the city and the city wall of the Liao had disappeared already along with the history and changes of thecity. But today some historical remains of the Liao Dynasty still can be found in Beijing:
(1) The Round City (Yuancheng) It is located by the southern gate of Beihai Park and was originally built by the Liao rulers. After restorations for manytimes by different dynasties it is still in existence today.
(2) Temple of Great Awakening (Dajuesi) It is located in the Western Hills northwest of Beijing. A tablet recording the erection of the magnificent tower in thetemple is the oldest stele made in the Liao Dynasty in Beijing. Itwas originally built in 1068 during the Liao Dynasty and namedthe Clear Spring Temple (Qingshuiyuan) because the stream ranthrough the temple grounds. It was given its present name whenit was rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty 1428. An unusual feature ofthe temple is that, it faces east instead of south. That is becausethe pagoda still exists there.
(3) The Ox Street Mosque (The Mosque at Niujie )The Mosque was built Islam Mosque and it is thein 955. It is a typical Arabesque largest and the longest in history Dynasty and its name was changed to Zhongdu (The Central Dynasty). The old city borders were enlarged to the east,of Khitan's customs for the gate facing south. There is a giantgingko tree, which was said to be over 1,000 years old.
(4) The Pagoda of the Temple of Heavenly Tranquility(Tianningsita) The Pagoda of Tianningsi is near Guanganmen. It is anelaborately constructed building from the Liao Dynasty. It is57.8 meters high with 13 storeys. Now the temple is gone, but Islam Mosque in Beijing.
In 12th century, the Nuzhen tribe from the Songhua River in the northeast drove out the Khitan Liao and in 1115 they setup the Jin Dynasty with the capital in Huining (today Heilongjiang Province). Later they occupied Yanjing in 1122. In order to maintain their control over the Yellow River Valley and at the same time remain in easy contact with their base in thenortheast, the Jin rulers moved their capital to the city of Yanjing in 1153. Then Yanjing was made the capital of the Jinl). Thus Zhongdu became the center of rule over half of China.
Large-scale construction was carried out in Zhongdu undewest and south. A new imperial palace was built modeled after the imperial palace at Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty (present city Kaifeng). Only under the Jin did the city really take a shape as an imperial capital, though its size was much smaller than the later dynasties. Its location was to the southwestern part of the present-day Beijing. After the imperial palace was completed, the Imperial Palace of Jin was well known for its sumptuousness, gorgeousness and splendidness.
The Jin rulers also did a lot of work in water conservancy and water transportation of grain to the capital. For instance, they built some water sluice gates in some rivers or moats from Grand Canal in Tongzhou to the city of Zhongdu, the central capital of Jin. Though some of the water projects failed, but the construction project of Lugouqiao (known to the West as the Marco Polo Bridge) is the most successful project. Westerners called it Marco Polo Bridge simply because Marco Polo describedit in his book "Travels" and introduced it to the West.
The old ferry crossing which served as a gateway to Beijing from the Yellow River Valley was made of a wooden pontoo nbridge, which could be easily washed away or burnt down. Tomeet the military, political, economic and cultural needs of the new imperial capital, the Jin emperor ordered the construction of a big stone bridge built over the Yongding River in 1189. The construction took more than three years and was completed in 1192. It was built in traditional Chinese bridge architecture with white marble stones. It is 266.5 meters long, 7. 5 meters widewith 281 balusters on both sides of the bridge. The most impressive sight about it is the stone carving on its balustrade.
There are a total of 485 big or small stone lions built on the top of the balusters. On each baluster there is a large stone lion andsome with one or two smaller ones around, each is different from the other in size and shape. The Italian traveler Marco Poloadmired the bridge and wrote in his book: "Ten miles past Khanbaliq (Dadu), a magnificent stone bridge crosses the river,and it has no comparison anywhere in the world." It was listedas one of the "Eight Scenic Spots of Yanjing' under thedescriptive title "Lu Gou Xiao Yue" which means the "MorningMoon Over Lugou Bridge". Later in the Qing Dynasty (1644--1911), Emperor Qianlong wrote in his elegant calligraphy forthe stele marking the respective beauty spots, including the "LuGou Xiao Yue" tablet which still stands today by the bridge.
Today this more than 800-year-old stone bridge is a world-famous tourist attraction. The bridge is of another particular significance: The Chinese people resisted the Japanese aggression. It was here that the War of Resistance Against Japan broke out on July 7th, 1937 (1937-1945).
Because of the cultural influence bythe Han nationality, the Jin Emperor built not only their imperial palace by imitation but also their imperial gardens in Beijing. But as time passed by, most of their imperial gardens had gone, only the remains or ruins can be seen today. Tongleyuan, Genfengligong and Badashuiyuan (The Eight Grant Gardens) were the Imperial
Gardens built in the Jin Dynasty. They laid a good foundation for the succeeding dynasties.
The Jin Dynasty lasted no more than 60 years, and then the Mongolians intruded. In the early 13th century, the Mongolians in the north gathered strength rapidly. In 1215 a cavalry forceunder Genghis Khan broke through the Nankou Pass, south ofthe Great Wall and captured Zhongdu where there was a fiercefighting with the Jin troops, and the magnificent city was nearly razed to the ground. At that time Zhongdu of Jin was only the capital of half of China in the north, while the Southern Song was in the south. In order to bring all China under control,Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis khan, came down from Mongolia to Zhongdu in 1260. It was here that Kublai established the Yuan Dynasty in 1271. After the defeat of theSouthern Song, he brought north and south China under control. In 1272 Kublai Khan moved the capital from the north to Zhongdu and made it as his capital, which was called Khanbaliq (Khan's City) and known as Dadu in Chinese (the Great Capital) for the newly founded Yuan Dynasty. After that Dadu replaced the position of ancient capitals of Chang'an, Louyang and Kaifeng. Ever since then Dadu became the National Capital of unified China and its position of a national capital maintained though some minor changes under different names in different dynasties down to the present day with only minor interruptions. Kublai Khan settled down and decided to abandon the old Jin City and made the center of Dadu in the northern suburbs outside the Jin city, roughly where Beihai Park stands today.passage of 24,steps.. in width was called, a broad street, 12 steps wide was a narrow road and a passage of 6: steps in width was called a Hutony. The broad straight; street ;ran mostly on principle from north .to-.south, intersected ,by, Hutong (lanes) running east to west. No wonder the great Italian traveler MarcoPolo (1254--1324) described the city. of. Beijing in his book, of "Travels:' : the street was so broad and straight ,that. someone standing at one, end :of-the road:could:see-the other end; With the patterned street and lanes,the whole city looked so beautiful,just like a chessboard.People in the west were astonished to learn that.there was a wonder land far in the east, so. rich andprosperous ,that no othercity in ,the world i could rival it at the time. Some ruins of the city Wall still remain today.
Because of the limited water supply in Dadu, Kublai commissioned the famous hydraulic expert Gou Shoujing to solve this problem Gou brought the Springs of Shenshan Mountain inChsngping,, ,.north, of Beijing to the south;and then, brought:thewater from the Jade Spring; Hill in the Westerni Hills into theKunming Lake and then to the, lake in :the city at Jishuitan(Water AccumulatingPool). Healso built the Tong Hui Canal linking Tongzhou, the terminal of the Grand-' Canal withJishuitan. It formed a waterway from north Shenshan to the south of Jade Spring Hill and then to the city Jishuitan and to the east Tongzhou Grand Canal. The sluice gates were also built along the way from Tongzhou Grand Canal to the,capital, city in order to make the balance of the water level because the city is much higher than Tongzhou. This greatly improved the watersupply in the Yuan Dynasty. Tonghui,,extension enabled thecanal cargoes from the south to enter the city Dadu. After that the area between Jishuitan and the Drum Tower became the commercial center of the city.
The prosperous city of Dadu attracted many merchants and foreign traders, and the frequent contacts between Yuan China and foreign countries promoted the growth of the economic andthe cultural exchanges. The Yuan rulers were probably much more open to the outside than the rulers in the Ming and Qing orother dynasties. A few foreigners were even appointed official Sin the Yuan imperial court. The famous Italian traveler Marco Polo came to China with his father and uncle in November 1271and received special favor and was appointed as a consultant official of the Yuan Empire by Kublai Khan. Later he described in his book of "Travels": "On the banks of a great river, there stood an ancient city of great size and splendor which was named Khanbaliq, or Khan's city". The Temple of White Pagoda(Baitasi) still standing in Beijing today was built in 1271, withthe help of a Nepalese artist named Arnico. Today we still cansee some Yuan construction-buildings in Beijing. For instance:Huguosi, Bailinsi, Baiyunguan, Chenghuangmiao, Guozijian,Kongmiao, Sitiantai, etc.
Ming Dynasty
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, successfully led the rebellion and overthrew the YuanCourt and established the Ming Dynasty (1368--1644) with its capital in Nanjing so Beijing was no longer the capital.
In the same year Zhu Yuanzhang dispatched his general Xu Da to launch the northern expedition against the last Yuan emperor inDadu, who then abandoned Dadu and fled back to the Mongolian steppes. After general Xu Da drove the last Yuan emperor out ofDadu, Beijing was renamed Beiping (Northern Peace).
After that, Zhu Yuanzhang made Zhu Di, one of his sons as a prince of Yan and gave Beiping as his domain. So Zhu Di became a localKing of Beijing garrison with a large number of troops. In 1398,Zhu Yuanzhang died. Because his eldest son had died earlier than him, so his eldest grandson succeeded him. One year later in1399, Zhu Di launched an interfamilial war to the capital Nanjing under the excuse of "wiping out the evils for the country". The war lasted three years and Zhu Di finally usurped the imperial power from his nephew, the second emperor of the Ming and became the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He adopted the reign title Yongle. Since Zhu Di had been a frontier commander in Beijing for many years, he realized that Beijing was a city of strategic importance to the whole country, and a peaceful northern boundary was of vital importance to the whole country too.
In order to resist the raid by the remnant Mongolian forcesmore effectively and further control the northeastern area inChina, as well as to uphold the national unity of the wholecountry, in 1421, Zhu Di officially moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing and changed the city name from Beiping to Beijing, as the city is known today.
Emperor Yongle rebuilt Beijing on the foundations of Dadu,drawing on different rchitectural styles from other earlierChinese capitals especially Nanjing. First he changed the size ofthe city wall by moving the Yuan northern city wall muchfurther to the south. And the southern city wall was pushedfrom the Yuan boundary along present-day Chang'an Avenue tothe present-day Qianmen (Front Gate). A city wall more than20 kilometers long enclosed the city with nine city gates, onwhich nine big city-gate-towers were added later. After thatthey built the Forbidden City and the Imperial City along theNorth-South Axis inside the city of Beijing. During the reign ofthe Emperor Jiajing (1522-1566), the outer city wall was added,but because of the financial problems only the southern suburbswere enclosed. Beijing then became a "double town" with asquare "inner city" inside and an oblong "outer city" only to thesouth. When the rebuilding was completed, Beijing was much larger than the Yuan Dadu, and its outlines were very differentThe Forbidden City was located in the middle, and then theImperial City, inner city and oblong outer city, one withinanother. This layout remained unchanged until 1949. In the city there is a North-South Central Axis, about 8kilometers long that passes through the entire city, fromYongdingmen (Gate of Eternal Pacification) in the souththrough Zhengyangmen (Front Gate), and then the ForbiddenCity, the Coal Hill and at last to the Drum Tower and BellTower in the north. In the old days, the Drum Tower and BellTower were sounded every hour on the hour. Bells were struckin the morning and drums beaten in the evening to mark time.The Forbidden City lies along the north-south central axis withother main important buildings flanking the central axis. TheSupreme Ancestral Temple is on the east and the Altar of Landand Grain to the west respectively of Tiananmen (The Gate ofHeavenly Peace). The Temple of Heaven and the Altar ofCreator of Agriculture are on either side of Yongdingmen (Gateof Eternal Pacification).
The Great Wall of China on the northwest of Beijing wasalso built under the Ming Dynasty as a protective project toBeijing and it is a popular tourist site now. The Ming emperorsalso built their tombs in Beijing, the famous Imperial burialground known as "The Thirteen Tombs" were also built underthe Ming. Among the architectural achievements of Ming rulersthere are also the Forbidden City, Imperial Palaces and halls,temples, altars, Drum Tower and Bell Tower as well as the citywalls lasted only 276 years from 1368-1644.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, because of the government corruption, a Peasant Uprising Army led by Li Zicheng attacked Beijing in spring of 1644. Finally the Uprising Army took over Beijing and overthrew the Ming Dynasty. The last emperor Chongzhen committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree in the Coal Hill just behind the Forbidden City. The Ming Dynastywas then over. That was the year of 1644. The Ming Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
However, the fruit of the uprising fell into the hands of the Manchu, a minority nationality in north China who had long been ambitious on central China, but were held back by theGreat Wall. With the help of a Ming general, the Manchu troops passed through the Great Wall and defeated :the peasant uprising troops. Only forty-two days later after Li Zichengthe founding of the Qing Dynasty, which totally lasted for 268years with a total of 10 sovereigns (1644--1911). The city of Beijing became the capital of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Though it was only forty-two days for the peasant uprising leader Li Zicheng to stay in the Forbidden City, the peasant uprising played a very important role in Chinese history and was of very important historical significance.

After the Qing rulers entered Beijing, they spent a large amount of money and manpower on improving or rebuilding newpleasure grounds in and around the city. For example, theimprovements were made to the Forbidden City, after that, the Qing emperors continued to use the Forbidden City as the irimperial palaces, the Tibetan-style White Dagoba in Beihai Park was also built at that time.

The greatest achievement of the Qing Dynasty is a vast complex of the imperial gardens and palaces laid out during the reigns of Qing Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) and Qianlong (1736-1795).
They are known as the "the three hills and five gardens" on the northwestern outskirts of Beijing- the Fragrant Hill, the Jade Spring Hill and the Longevity Hill are the three hills.
The five gardens are:
The Garden of Everlasting Spring (Changchuyuan),
The Garden of Perfection and Brightness (Yuanmingyuan),
The Garden of Tranquility and Brightness (Jingmingyuan),
The Garden of Clear Ripples (Qingyiyuan)
The Garden of Tranquility and Pleasure (Jingyiyuan).

Apart from the imperial parks and gardens, there were also some gardens on small scales owned by some high officials and noble families. But in 1860 and in 1900 the Anglo-French Allied Forces and the Eight Imperialist Powers invaded Beijing respectively and they burned down the three hills and five gardens into ashes.

Modern Time
In 1911, a revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen (1866--1925) overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Then under the leadership of Dr. Sun Yat-sen the Republic of China was founded. But the rivalries among the warlords plunged the country into ceaseless civil war. The May 4th Movement of 1919 that started in Beijing heralded the New Democratic Revolution in China.
On May 4th 1919, massive student demonstrations shook Beijing and soon it developed into a nationwide movement, It was the beginning of a new awakening of the Chinese people in their struggle against feudalism and foreign imperialism. The struggle paved the way for a new democratic revolution and for that Beijing became the cradle of a new cultural campaign in China. As a result of the new democratic movement, which is regarded as a turning point in Chinese history, a new party was born- -the Communist Party of China. It was also here in Beijing that the revolutionary martyr Li Dazhao, who first disseminated Marxism, and the great writer and thinker Lu Xun fought the enemy with theirpens. Ancient Beijing became the birth place of the revolution inmodern China.

In 1928, the Kuomintang Government moved thecapital to Nanjing and Beijing
was renamed Beiping again. On January 31st 1949, Beijing was liberated by the People'sLiberation Army.

On October 1, 1949, the people of Beijing hailed their liberation when Chairman Mao Zedong stood on Tiananmen rostrum, solemnly proclaimed to the whole world the founding of the People's Republic of China: "The Chinese people have stood up!"A new chapter of the city's history hassince opened up. The city of "Beiping" got the name "Beijing" back again until now.

After 1949, reconstruction of the city began on a large scale. First, the place in front of the Tiananmen was cleared to become a large square, and Chang'an Avenue was broadened too. We also built a lot of government buildings, apartment buildings, roads, boulevards,expressways, overpasses,... etc. Beijing has been greatly changed and it is changing every day.

Now Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China,and it is the center of political life for the people of all ethnic groups in China.