Beijing History

In your Beijing tour, a lot of the scenic spots are related with Beijing history.One of the main attractions of Beijing travel is attributable to the profound history, which leaves the city with fabulous relics. The earliest known man in Beijing was called Peking man. They lived about half a millions ago in the place called Zhoukoudian in Chinese, in the southwestern suburbs of Beijing. The Peking man’s fossils, his stone tools and evidence of use of fire, as well as later tools of 18,000 years ago, bone needles and article of decoration from the age of Upper Cave Man are the earliest records on cultural relics in China today.

 

4,000 or 5,000 years ago, in the southwest of Beijing, settlements were thriving on basic agriculture and animal husbandry. According to the legend, Emperor Yellow (Huang Di) won the tribal leader Chiyou in the Zhuolu Battle. Zhuolu, perhaps the site of the first metropolis in the area, is a town located in west of present-day Beijing. Emperor Yellow’s successor, Emperor Yao, was said to have established a legendary capital Youdu (City of Quietude) that was where the city of Ji was actually built.

 

During the Warring States Period (475-221BC), the Marquis of Yan unified the territory of the Marquis of Ji, making the city of Ji as the new capital. The present Guanganmen Gate in Beijing near the White Cloud Temple (Baiyunguan) was the approximate location of Ji.

 

In the early 3rd century BC, the first Emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang) annexed all six states and found the first autocratic feudal system in China. The city of Ji became the administrative center of Guangyang Commandery, one of 36 prefectures in China during that period of time. Till to the end of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Ji continued to be a strategic trading and military center and the object of frequent power struggles.

 

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty left their mark on the city. In order to conquer Korea, Emperor Yang gathered troops and supplies at there. Emperor Taizong also used the city to train his military. The Temple for Compassion for the Loyal in memory of the soldiers died in battle was ordered to build by Emperor Taizong. This temple was the precursor of the Temple of the Origin of the Dharma located outside the old walls of the city.

 

However, several centuries later, the splendid Tang dynasty began to collapse. The Qidans (Khitans), lived in the upper parts of the Liaohe River, ventured south to occupy Ji and took it as their second capital. The city was named Nanjing (Southern Capital) or Yanjing by them. Emperor Taizong of the Liao Dynasty (916-1125) carried out reconstruction projects and built palaces, which were used as strongholds from which the Qidans set out to conquer the central plains of China.

 

In the early 12th century, the Nuzhen (Jurchen) vanquished the Liao and established the Jin Dynasty in 1115. In 1153, Wan Yanliang moved the Jin capital from Huiningfu in present day Liaoning Province to Yanjing and renamed it Zhongdu (Central Capital) as a challenge to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), which had its capital at Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou). Before Wan Yanliang ascending to the throne, the city of Yanjing had changed little from the Liao period.

 

Construction of rebuilding the new city began in 1151. The city was expanded to the east, west and south. In order to have the same scale of the Northern Song (960-1127) capital at Bianliang (modern Kaifeng), many of the actual building materials of this palaces were transported from Bianliang. The new expanded city, with its splendid buildings in the center measured roughly five kilometers in circumference. The registered population of the Imperial Palace in the center measured roughly five kilometers in circumference. The registered population of Zhongdu reached to 225,592 households, about one million people.

 

In 1215, Zhongdu was conquered by Mongol armies. At this time, Yanjing enjoyed the provincial status under the controlling of Mongolia. In 1271, Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty and made Yanjing as the capital. After the reconstruction of this city by Kublai Khan, it gained its Chinese name, Dadu (Ta-tu) or Great Capital, however, in Mongol it was known as Khanbalig (Marco Polo's Cambaluc), the City of the Great Khan. When the Mongols finally vanquished the Southern Song Dynasty and unified China, Dadu became the political center of the country for the first time in history.

 

Construction of Dadu between 1267 and 1293 extended throughout the entire period of Kublai Khan's rule. During those turbulent years from the Jin to the Yuan, Jin’s magnificent palaces and its capital, Zhongdu, were destroyed by fire. The newly-built capital in a larger rectangular area centered in a beautiful lake region in the northeastern suburbs replaced Zhongdu.

 

The construction of Dadu was composed of three main projects: the imperial palaces, the city walls and moats, and the canal. The first stage was to construct the palace buildings, most of which were completed in 1274. The next stage was to construct the mansions for the imperial princes, the government offices, the Taimiao (Imperial Ancestral Temple) and Shejitan (Altar of Land and Grain) to the east and west of the palace, and a system of streets for ordinary residences. In 1293, the connection between the capital and the Grand Canal was completed. It was the strategic Tonghui Canal.

 

As the capital city of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Dadu was very famous and popular in the 13th century all over the world. At that time, Dadu was visited by many envoys and traders from Europe, Asia and Africa. They were startled by Dadu’s splendor and magnificence.

 

The new Dadu with rectangular shape measured more than 30 kilometers in circumference. In the later years of Kublai Khan's rule, the city population measured 100,000 households or roughly 500,000 people. The layout was the result of uniform planning, the broader streets all 24 paces wide, the narrow lanes half this width. The regular chessboard pattern created an impression of relaxed orderliness.

 

In 1368, Ming troops occupied Dadu and renamed it Beiping (Northern Peace). Zhu Yuanzhang, found the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), however, made Nanjing his first capital. Beginning in 1406, during the rein of Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty, it took 15 years to construct walls with 12 meters in height and 10 meters thick at their base around the city of Beiping. The construction of palace buildings and gardens began in 1417 and was finished in 1420. In the next year, Emperor Yongle formally moved the capital from Nanjing to Beiping and named the city of Beijing (Northern Capital) for the first time.

 

During the first years of the Ming Dynasty, large scale of rebuilding work was carried out in Beijing. The northern city walls were moved 2.5 kilometers southward. The great advances in city planning were the Inner (Tartar) City. The Outer or Chinese City to the south was built during the reign of Emperor Jiajing (1522-1566), adding to the rectangular city a slightly wider "base" in the south.

In 1644, the Manchus founded the Qing Dynasty. They began to build suburban gardens, in which the most famous one was Yuanmingyuan. Combinations of the imposing columned palaces and open-air pavilions with the serenity of well-planned gardens created a masterpiece of garden architecture unparalleled in the history of China.

 

A city plan was first laid out in the Yuan Dynasty. Through extensive reconstruction during the Ming and Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), this city emerging as an architectural masterpiece can serve as the capital of the Chinese empire. A north-south axis halved the city with the Imperial Palace, knows as Danei (The Great Within). In the Ming, it was renamed the Forbidden City (Zijincheng), and recently it began to be called the Palace Museum (Gugong Bowuyuan). With thousands of halls and gates arranged symmetrically around a north-south axis, its dimensions and luxuriance are a fitting symbol of the power and greatness of traditional China.

 

After the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, China was controlled by the Northern Warlords and Kuomintang. Beijing suffered the same fate as the rest of China. The Chinese People's Liberation Army formally entered Beijing on January 31, 1949, opening a new chapter in the long history of the city. It was in Tian'anmen Square on October 1st, 1949 that Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China, with Beijing as its capital.

 

Since then, the city has changed completely. Beijing has been expanded from its old extents with nine gates in the Inner City wall (Zhengyangmen, Chongwenmen, Xuanwumen, Chaoyangmen, Dongzhimen, Fuchengmen, Xizhimen, Andingmen and Deshengmen) to the seven outer gates (Dongbianmen, Guangqumen, Xibianmen, Guang' anmen, Yongdingmen, Zuoanmen and Youanmen) and out into the suburbs, Beijing now covers an area of about 750 square kilometers, including a dozen new living districts built on the outskirts of town.

 

Tian'anmen Square is still the center of Beijing, Chang' an Boulevard now running 38 kilometers from Shijingshan in the west to Tongxian in the east. The palaces and city towers along both sides have been designated cultural relics for national protection. Former imperial residences and gardens have been opened for public viewing.

 

New buildings like the International Post Office and Bank of China have been built along the Second Ring Road, the former line of the Inner City wall. Old living quarters and blocks of traditional Beijing-style buildings, such as Liulichang Culture Street, have been restored. Large- scale construction has been undertaken along the Third Ring Road and the fourth Ring Road.

 

Future development in Beijing will continue to preserve the symmetry of the old city layout while integrating modern architectural design into the overall plan.

 

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