Early history The earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of
Dragon Bone Hill near the village of
Zhoukoudian in
Fangshan District, where
Peking Man lived.
Homo erectus fossils from the caves date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago.
Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived there more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found
neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in
Wangfujing, located in central Beijing. The first
walled city in Beijing was
Ji, the eponymous capital city of the
state of Ji. Within modern Beijing, Ji was located around the present
Guang'anmen area in the south of
Xicheng District. During the early
Zhou period, this settlement was conquered by the
state of Yan (11th century BC – 222 BC), whose original capital was located southwest in Fangshan District, and made its new capital. Yan eventually became one of the seven major states of China during the
Warring States period (c. 475 – 221 BC).
Early and Mid-Imperial China After the
First Emperor unified China in 221 BC, Ji became the capital of
Guangyang Commandery. During the
Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), the city was first the capital of the subordinate
Kingdom of Yan, and later again the seat of Guangyang Commandery after the kingdom was abolished. The Han divided the empire into 13 provinces, with Ji being the capital of
You Province. During the
Three Kingdoms period, it was held by
Gongsun Zan and
Yuan Shao before falling to
Cao Cao. The AD third-century
Western Jin demoted the town, placing the prefectural seat in neighboring
Zhuozhou. During the
Sixteen Kingdoms period when northern China was conquered and divided by the
Wu Hu, Ji was briefly the capital of the
Xianbei Former Yan Kingdom. , founded in 307 CE during the
Western Jin dynasty After China was reunified by the
Sui dynasty in 581, Ji, as the seat of
Zhuo Commandery, became the northern terminus of the
Grand Canal. Under the
Tang dynasty, Ji as the center of
You Prefecture (Youzhou), served as a military frontier command center. During the
An-Shi Rebellion and again amidst the turmoil of the mid-Tang period, the rebel commander
An Lushan founded the short-lived Yan dynasty and called the city
Yanjing, or the "Yan Capital". Also in the Tang dynasty, the city's name Ji was replaced by Youzhou or Yanjing. In 938, after the fall of the
Later Tang dynasty, the
Later Jin ceded
the frontier territory including what is now Beijing to the
Khitan Liao dynasty, which treated the city as
Nanjing, or the "Southern Capital", one of four secondary capitals to complement its "Supreme Capital"
Shangjing (in modern
Baarin Left Banner,
Inner Mongolia). Some of the
oldest surviving pagodas in Beijing date to the Liao period, including the
Tianning Pagoda. , built around 1120 during the
Liao dynasty, one of the oldest surviving structures in BeijingThe Liao fell to the
Jurchen Jin dynasty in 1122, which gave the city to the
Song dynasty and then retook it in 1125 during its
conquest of northern China. In 1153, the Jurchen Jin made Beijing their "Central Capital", or
Zhongdu. Two generations later,
Kublai Khan ordered the construction of
Dadu (or Daidu to the Mongols, commonly known as
Khanbaliq), a new capital for his
Yuan dynasty to the northeast of the Zhongdu ruins. The construction took from 1264 to 1293, but greatly enhanced the status of a city on the northern fringe of
China proper. The city was centered on the
Drum Tower slightly to the north of modern Beijing and stretched from the present-day
Chang'an Avenue to the northern part of
Line 10 subway. Remnants of the Yuan
rammed earth wall still stand and are known as the Tucheng.
Ming dynasty silk hanging scroll depicting the
Forbidden City with its architect
Kuai Xiang standing before Chengtian Gate (present-day Tiananmen);
British Museum, London In 1368, soon after declaring the new
Hongwu era of the
Ming dynasty, the
rebel leader
Zhu Yuanzhang captured Dadu/Khanbaliq and razed the Yuan palaces to the ground. Since the
Yuan continued to occupy
Shangdu and
Mongolia, Dadu was used to supply the Ming military garrisons in the area and renamed Beiping (
Wade–Giles: Peip'ing, "Northern Peace"). Under the Hongwu Emperor's feudal policies, Beiping was given to his son
Zhu Di, who was created "
Prince of Yan". The early death of
Zhu Yuanzhang's heir led to a
succession struggle upon his death, one that ended with the victory of
Zhu Di and the declaration of the new
Yongle era. Since his harsh treatment of the Ming capital
Yingtian (modern
Nanjing) alienated many there, he established his fief as a new co-capital. The city of Beiping became Beijing ("Northern Capital") or
Shuntian in 1403. and
Tian'anmen. On 28 October 1420, the city was officially designated the capital of the
Ming dynasty in the same year that the Forbidden City was completed. Beijing became the empire's primary capital, and Yingtian, also called
Nanjing ("Southern Capital"), became the co-capital. (A 1425 order by Zhu Di's son, the
Hongxi Emperor, to return the primary capital to Nanjing was never carried out: he died, probably of a heart attack, the next month. He was buried, like almost every Ming emperor to follow him, in an
elaborate necropolis to Beijing's north.) By the 15th century, Beijing had essentially taken its current shape. The
Ming city wall continued to serve until 1965, when it was pulled down and the
Beijing Subway was built on its foundations. It is generally believed that Beijing was the largest city in the world for most of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The
first known church was constructed by
Catholics in 1652 at the former site of
Matteo Ricci's chapel; the modern
Nantang Cathedral was later built upon the same site. The capture of Beijing by
Li Zicheng's peasant army in 1644 ended the dynasty, but he and his
Shun court abandoned the city without a fight when the
Manchu army of Prince
Dorgon of the
Qing dynasty arrived 40 days later.
Qing dynasty Beijing was declared the sole capital of the empire in 1644. The Qing emperors made some modifications to the Imperial residence but, in large part, the Ming buildings and the general layout remained unchanged. Facilities for Manchu worship were introduced, but the Qing also continued the traditional state rituals. Signage was bilingual or Chinese. This early Qing Beijing later formed the setting for the Chinese novel
Dream of the Red Chamber. Northwest of the city, Qing emperors built several large palatial gardens including the
Old Summer Palace and the
Summer Palace. During the
Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces captured the outskirts of the city, looting and burning the
Old Summer Palace in 1860. Under the
Convention of Peking ending that war, Western powers for the first time secured the right to establish
permanent diplomatic presences within the city. From 14 to 15 August 1900 the
Battle of Peking was fought. This battle was part of the
Boxer Rebellion. The attempt by the
Boxers to eradicate this presence, as well as
Chinese Christian converts, led to Beijing's reoccupation by eight
foreign powers. During the fighting, several important structures were destroyed, including the
Hanlin Academy and the (new)
Summer Palace. A
peace agreement was concluded between the
Eight-Nation Alliance and representatives of the Chinese government
Li Hongzhang and
Yikuang on 7 September 1901. The treaty required China to pay an indemnity of US$335 million (over US$4 billion in current dollars) plus interest over a period of 39 years. Also required was the execution or exile of government supporters of the Boxers and the destruction of Chinese forts and other defenses in much of northern China. Ten days after the treaty was signed the foreign armies left Beijing, although legation guards would remain there until
World War II. With the treaty signed the
Empress Dowager Cixi returned to Beijing from her "tour of inspection" on 7 January 1902 and the rule of the Qing dynasty over China was restored, albeit much weakened by the defeat it had suffered in the Boxer Rebellion and by the indemnity and stipulations of the peace treaty. The Dowager died in 1908 and the dynasty imploded in 1911. File:Jingshan old2.jpg|
Jingshan Park, Late Qing dynasty File:VIEW OF THE CENTRAL STREET IN THE CHINESE QUARTER OF PEKING.jpg|A view from the city wall over the rooftops and courtyard compounds of Beijing, photographed by John Thomson c. 1871 File:Xieqiqu ruins, Ernst Ohlmer, 1870s.jpg|The
Old Summer Palace, photographed by Ernst Ohlmer, c. 1872–1873, approximately a decade after the complex was
looted and burned by Anglo-French forces in 1860 File:Peking. Chien men - Circa 1905 (ChinaZeug.de).jpg|
Zhengyangmen (Qianmen, "Front Gate"), the principal southern gate of the city, photographed c. 1905
Republic of China The fomenters of the
Xinhai Revolution of 1911 sought to replace Qing rule with a republic and leaders like
Sun Yat-sen originally intended to return the capital to
Nanjing. After the Qing general
Yuan Shikai forced the abdication of the last Qing emperor and ensured the success of the revolution, the revolutionaries accepted him as president of the new
Republic of China. Yuan maintained his capital at Beijing and quickly consolidated power, declaring himself emperor in 1915. His death less than a year later left China under the control of the warlords commanding the regional armies. Following the success of the
Kuomintang's
Northern Expedition, the capital was formally moved to
Nanjing in 1928. On 28 June the same year, Beijing's name was returned to Beiping (written at the time as "Peiping"). On 7 July 1937, the 29th Army and the Japanese army in China exchanged fire at the
Marco Polo Bridge near the
Wanping Fortress southwest of the city. The
Marco Polo Bridge Incident triggered the
Second Sino-Japanese War,
World War II as it is known in China. During the war, and was made the seat of the
Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a
puppet state that ruled the ethnic-Chinese portions of Japanese-occupied
northern China. This government was later merged into the larger
Wang Jingwei government based in Nanjing. File:Chinese protestors march against the Treaty of Versailles (May 4, 1919).jpg|Chinese protestors march against the
Treaty of Versailles (May 4, 1919), during the
May Fourth Movement. File:NRA Generals Northern Expedition.jpg|July 6, 1928, the
Kuomintang leaders held memorial ceremony to
Sun Yat-sen after the completion of the
Northern Expedition. File:Peking 1930s.jpg|Peking during the 1930s File:Chiang KaiShek Portrait Tiananmen Beijing.jpg|A large portrait of
Chiang Kai-shek was displayed above
Tiananmen after
World War II People's Republic of China In the final phases of the
Chinese Civil War, the
People's Liberation Army seized control of the city peacefully on 31 January 1949 in the course of the
Pingjin Campaign. On 1 October that year,
Mao Zedong announced the creation of the
People's Republic of China from atop
Tiananmen. He restored the name of the city, as the new capital, to Beijing, a decision that had been reached by the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference just a few days earlier. In the 1950s, the city began to expand beyond the old walled city and its surrounding neighborhoods, with heavy industries in
the west and residential neighborhoods in
the north. Many areas of the
Beijing city wall were torn down in the 1960s to make way for the construction of the
Beijing Subway and the
2nd Ring Road. During the
Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the
Red Guard movement began in Beijing and the city's government fell victim to one of the first purges. By the autumn of 1966, all city schools were shut down and over a million Red Guards from across the country gathered in Beijing for eight rallies in Tiananmen Square with Mao. The campaign took a devastating toll on Beijing's built heritage: by the end of the Cultural Revolution, 4,922 of the 6,843 sites officially designated as historically significant in the city had been destroyed or damaged, over 70 percent of the total, as Red Guards systematically targeted temples, shrines, ancestral halls, and monuments in the campaign to eliminate the "
Four Olds". In April 1976, a large public gathering of Beijing residents in Tiananmen Square, protesting against the
Gang of Four and the Cultural Revolution,
was forcefully suppressed. In October 1976, the Gang was arrested in
Zhongnanhai and the Cultural Revolution came to an end. In December 1978, the
Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress in Beijing under the leadership of
Deng Xiaoping reversed the verdicts against victims of the Cultural Revolution and instituted the
reform and opening up. 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. According to one 2005 newspaper report, the newly developed Beijing was one-and-a-half times its previous size.
Wangfujing and
Xidan have developed into flourishing shopping districts, while
Zhongguancun has become a major center of electronics in China. In recent years, the expansion of Beijing has also brought to the forefront some problems of urbanization, such as
heavy traffic,
poor air quality, the loss of historic neighborhoods, and a significant influx of migrant workers from less-developed
rural areas of the country. The city has also been the location of many significant events in recent Chinese history, principally the
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Beijing has hosted major international sporting events, including the
2008 Summer Olympics, the
2015 World Athletics Championships, and the
2022 Winter Olympics, and is the only city to have hosted both the
Winter and
Summer Olympics. In terms of international connectedness, as of 2024, Beijing was one of eight cities worldwide that was classified as an "Alpha+" city by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network. File:Mao Proclaiming New China.JPG|On 1 October 1949,
Mao Zedong announced the
founding of the People's Republic of China File:1967-11 1967年 北京大学大字报.jpg|College students hang political posters during
Culture Revolution File:Beijing-1978 Huabiao Tiananmen Square Paul Burns.jpg|
Tian'anmen Square in 1978 File:2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony - Fireworks.jpg|Fireworks illuminate the
National Stadium ("Bird's Nest") during the opening ceremony of the
2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing. == Cityscape ==