Beijing

Beijing (北京 pinyin bei3 jing1; Pei-Ching in Wade-Giles; Pekin or Peking) is the capital city of the People's Republic of China, with 13,000,000 inhabitants. Beijing Municipality is about 16,800 km². The municipality governs 10 districts and 8 counties. It literally means "northern capital".

Beijing is sometimes referred to as Peking. The term originated with French missionaries four hundred years ago, and corresponds to an archaic pronunciation which does not take into account a 'k' to 'j' sound shift in Mandarin that occurred during the Qing dynasty.

In China, the city has had many names. Between 1911 and 1949, it was known as Beiping (北平 Wade-Giles Peip'ing) or "Northern Peace". The name was changed because jing means "capital" and the Kuomintang government in Nanjing wanted to emphasize that Beijing was not the capital of China. Curiously, many maps of China from Taiwan still use the old name, although most people in Taiwan call the city Beijing.

For the historical names of Beijing, see Capital of China.

Beijing will be the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Famous landmarks around Beijing include:

• Forbidden City
• Tiananmen Square, site of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1919, 1975, 1989
• The Great Wall
• The Temple of Heaven
• The Summer Palace
• Ruins of the Old Summer Palace
• Gulou -- The Drum Tower

Universities include:

• Peking University
• Tsinghua University
• Beijing Institute of Technology
• Beijing Institute of Posts and Communication
• Beijing Normal University
• Beijing Science and Technology University
• Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• China Algricultural University
• China Geosciences University
• China University of Mine Technology
• Renmin University of China
• Northern Jiaotong University

Airports include:

• Beijing Capital International Airport

See also:

• Mandarin cuisine
• Mandarin Chinese
• Compare to Nanjing (southern capital), Tokyo and Tonkin (eastern capitals).

External links

• Satellite image of Beijing at NASA's Earth Observatory