A History of Beijing

Beijing under the Emperors

The area that marks today’s Beijing was first peopled some 500,000 years ago. A frontier trading town sprouted for the Mongols, Koreans and tribes from Shandong and central China around 1000 BC. The town was burnt to the ground by Genghis Khan in 1215 AD. The resurrected city was passed on to Kublai Khan, Genghis's grandson, as Dadu, or Great Capital. The mercenary Zhu Yanhang led an uprising in 1368, taking over the city and ushering in the Ming dynasty. The city was renamed Beiping or Northern Peace and for the next 35 years the capital was shifted to Nanjing. When it was shunted back, Beiping became Beijing or Northern Capital and such foreboding structures as the Forbidden City were erected at this time. Under the Manchu invaders, who established the Qing dynasty in the 17th century, Beijing was thoroughly renovated and expanded.

The Qing dynasty collapsed in the revolution of 1911 and the Nationalist party ostensibly seized control. In reality, true power remained in the hands of the warlords, who carved up China into their own fiefdoms. In 1937, after decades of struggle between the Nationalists and the warlords, the Japanese invaded Beijing and soon overran eastern China. The Nationalist Party retreated west to the city of Chongqing, which became China's temporary capital during WWII. They returned to Beijing after Japan's defeat in 1945, but by this time the Chinese civil war was in full swing and their days were numbered.

Beijing under Mao

With Mao Zedong's proclamation of a 'People's Republic' in Tiananmen Square in 1949, the Communists stripped the face of Beijing. The huge city walls were pulled down and the commemorative arches followed. Hundreds of temples and monuments were destroyed. Blocks of buildings were reduced to rubble to widen the boulevards and Tiananmen Square. Soviet technicians poured in and left their mark in the form of Stalinesque architecture. This devastation of traditional Chinese culture was extended in 1966 when Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. China was to remain in the grip of chaos for the next decade. It wasn't until around 1979 that Deng Xiaoping, a former protégé of Mao who had emerged as a pragmatic leader, launched a modernization drive. The country opened up and Westerners were finally given a chance to see what the Communists had been up to for the past 30 years.

Modern Beijing

In 1989 a massive pro-democracy student protest in Tiananmen Square was brutally crushed by Deng Xiaoping's government forces with great bloodshed. In 1995 Beijing played host to the United Nations' Conference on Women. Having lobbied the UN hard to get the conference, the Chinese then denied visas to at least several hundred people who wanted to attend because their presence was regarded as politically inappropriate. Beijing's undertaken an image makeover in recent times, which has included the abolition of the last of the city's official off-limit areas, established in the 1950s to quarantine the Cultural Revolution from foreign influences, and the successful pursuit of the 2008 Olympic Games; with the latter, however, propaganda benefits rather than sport may be foremost in the minds of Chinese officials, considering one proposal to stage beach volleyball games and part of the triathlon in Tiananmen Square.

Some of Beijing's current problems are environmental rather than political, however. The Gobi desert is encroaching on the town and Beijing is one of the most polluted cities in the world. The need for speedy economic expansion, magnified by preparations for the 2008 Olympics, will put extra pressure on an already degraded environment.

The Forbidden City

The Forbidden City is the largest and the best-preserved Palace complex in the world. It has 9,999 rooms with just a single room short of the number that ancient Chinese belief represents "Divine Perfection" and is surrounded by a moat six meters deep and ten-meter high wall. For five centuries, this palace functioned as the administrative center of the country as well as being the residence of emperors and empresses of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The old world of beautiful concubines and emperors, ball-breaking (and broken) eunuchs and conspicuous wealth still hovers around the lush gardens, courtyards, pavilions and great halls of the palace. Most of the buildings are post-18th century. There have been periodic losses due to an injudicious mix of lantern festivals and Gobi winds, invading Manchus and, in this century, pillaging and looting by both the Japanese forces and the Kuomintang.

Lama Temple

Beijing's largest temple, a Tibetan style place, is ornamented with intriguing statuary, stunning frescoes, tapestries, incredible carpentry and a formidable pair of Chinese lions. Perhaps most impressive of all is an 60ft high sandalwood statue of the Maitreya or future Buddha in the Wanfu Pavilion, carved from a single tree. The first thing one will encounter is the holy shins, at eye level, and from there to the ceiling as the statue soars up and over the galleries. Flitting around the Buddha's head are what appear to be spinning prayer wheels, emitting a sweet, harmonious whine. Closer inspection reveals them to be pigeons with whistles attached. The temple is a working lamasery so it's closed early in the mornings for prayer.

The Summer Palace

This domain of palace temples, gardens, pavilions, lakes and corridors was once a playground for the imperial court. Royalty came here to elude the insufferable summer heat that roasted the Forbidden City. The Summer Palace with its cool features, water, gardens and hills, was once the palace of choice for vacationing emperors and Dowager Empresses. It was badly damaged by Anglo-French troops during the Second Opium War and its restoration became a pet project of Empress Dowager Cixi, the last of the Qing dynasty rulers. Money earmarked for a modern navy was used for the project but, in a bit of whimsical irony, the only thing that was completed was the restoration of a marble boat. The boat now sits at the edge of the lake in all its immobile and nonmilitary glory. The Palace's full restoration was hampered by the disintegration of the Qing dynasty and the Boxer Rebellion.

Composed mainly of Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake, The Summer Palace occupies an area of 726.5 acres, three quarters of which is water. Guided by nature, artists designed the gardens exquisitely so that visitors would see marvelous views and be amazed by perfect examples of refined craftwork using the finest materials. Centered on the Tower of Buddhist Incense, the Summer Palace consists of over 3,000 structures including pavilions, towers, bridges, and corridors.

The main building is the lyrically named Hall of Benevolence and Longevity, while along the north shore is the Long Corridor, so named because it's, well, long. There's over 2300ft of corridor, filled with mythical paintings and scenes. If some of the paintings seem new, that's because many of the murals were painted over during the Cultural Revolution.

Temple of Heaven Park

The park's classic Ming architecture gives the park lots of symbolic value. The Temple of Heaven is set in the 660-acre park, with four gates at the cardinal points, and walls to the north and east. It originally functioned as a vast stage for solemn rites and rituals. All of the buildings in the park, including the Round Altar, the Imperial Vault of Heaven and the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, are tangible conversations between the gods and mortals. The buildings are carefully thought out homage’s to ancient gods and beliefs; fengshui, numerology, cosmology and religion all played a part in their original construction, and the result is an awesome display of the divine in the architecture and the devil in the detail.

The Great Wall of China

When the wall was originally built 2000 years ago by the Qing dynasty it was a sturdy 'No Trespassing' sign directed at neighboring kingdoms. Today it's a tourist attraction, a Wonder of the World, but to many Chinese it's just a wall. They seem to reserve for it, and the foreigners who come to marvel, a kind of bemused tolerance. The majority of visitors climb the wall at Badaling, 70 kilometers northwest of the center of Beijing. The wall of Badaling has a total length of 3,741 meters with an average height of 8 meters. The highest part is 15 meters. The top of the wall can permit five horses to be ridden abreast. There are arched doors at the inner side of the wall with very little distance between each two doors. The arched doors lead one to the top of the wall by stone stairs. Near Badaling, there is a large-scaled Great-Wall-of-China Museum as well as the Great Wall National Theater from which one can get a full and complete view of the Great Wall.

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square is located at the center of Beijing, where one can visit the Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People, and Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. The square entered the history of infamy in 1989 when Chinese troops and tanks crushed a peaceful pro democracy demonstration, killing many.

The granite Monument to the People's Heroes is just at the center of the Tiananmen Square. Built in 1952, it is the largest monument in China's history. Eight unusually large relief sculptures show to the people the development of Chinese modern history. Two rows of white marble railings enclose the monument.

The Great Hall of the People is west of the Square. This building, erected in 1959, is the site of the China National People's Congress meetings and provides an impressive site for other political and diplomatic activities. Twelve marble posts stand in front of the Hall, which has three parts; the Central Hall, the Great Auditorium and a Banqueting Hall. The floor of the Central Hall is paved with marble and crystal lamps hang from the ceiling. The Great Auditorium behind the Central Hall seats 10,000. The Banqueting Hall is a huge hall with 5,000 seats.

Mao Zedong Memorial Hall is at the south side of the Square. This Hall is divided into three halls. Chairman Mao's body lies in a crystal coffin in one of the halls surrounded by fresh bouquets of various famous flowers and grasses.

Another important place is the China National Museum at the east side of the Square. It just opened in 2003 and is a combination of Chinese History Museum and Chinese Revolutionary Museum. Inside the Chinese Revolutionary Museum are a lot of material objects, pictures, books and models to present the development of modern China. The Chinese History Museum displays a large number of cultural relics illustrating the long history and enduring culture of China from 1,700,000 years ago to 1921 when the last emperor left the throne.

Visiting Beijing

Beijing’s airport is served by flights from most major cities in the world. Beijing also has train service with Russia, Mongolia, North Korea, Hong Kong and Vietnam. The bus and train service is somewhat crowded and chaotic. However, one can rent a bicycle, which many Beijing residents still use to get around.