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Podcast Transcript
Located in Northern China is not only one of the largest cities in the world but also the capital of the largest country in the world, Beijing.
Like many great cities, Beijing has had its ups and downs. It has gone from a sleepy village to a global city. It has seen its share of wars, revolutions, and historical events.
Not only has it had a front-row seat to history, but it has also changed its name multiple times in multiple languages.
Learn more about Beijing and how it has evolved over the centuries on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
The story of Bejing goes back far beyond that of most major cities.
The earliest evidence of ancient hominin settlement in the area goes back somewhere between 200,000 to 700,000 years.
In the 1920s and 30s, Swedish, Canadian, and Chinese paleontologists found fossils from early human ancestors, which were dubbed Homo erectus pekinensis or Peking Man.
The Peking Man fossils were found in the Zhoukoudian site, a series of limestone caves about 50 km or 30 miles southwest of modern Beijing.
Sadly, the original fossils were shipped to the United States during World War II and were lost, most probably in a Japanese naval attack.
The discovery of the Peking Man fossils and their importance will be another episode, but suffice it to say it showed that humans and early human ancestors lived in the region for a very long time.
I’ll get to why Peking Man was called Peking Man instead of Bejing Man in a moment.
As far as recorded history goes, the earliest evidence of settlement dates back to the Shang dynasty during the 16th–11th century BC. The region was home to a walled city known as Ji, which served as a trading hub and administrative center.
During the Zhou Dynasty, from 1046 to 256 BC, Ji became an important city in the state of Yan, one of the major powers of the Warring States period from 475 to 221 BC.
When China became unified under the Qin Dynasty from 221 to 206 BC: Ji continued as a regional center, but didn’t have any national importance.
During the Han Dynasty rom 206 BC to 220, Ji grew as a military and administrative hub.
During Tang Dynasty 618 to 907 Ji served as a frontier post and regional commercial center.
I’m jumping over large swaths of time here, but the point is that Ji was a notable regional city, but wasn’t an imperial capital.
For most of this period, but not all, the imperial capital of China was the modern city of Nanjing. Nanjing simply means southern capital.
Things began to change for the city under the Liao Dynasty. The Liao Dynasty which ruled from 907 to 1125, was founded by the Khitan, a nomadic people from Manchuria, and ruled over parts of northern China, Mongolia, and Manchuria.
Their primary capital was known as Shangjing, which is just ruins today. However, they set up a secondary capital in Ji which was known as Nanjing, which is very confusing because there is another city by that name.
The Liao was replaced by the Jin Dynasty, which established their capital in Ji and called it Zhongdu. It was their imperial capital from 1115 to 1234.
So, why did the Liao and Jin use this city as their capital and why did it remain a capital? Many of the great Chinese cities are built on the great rivers of China that flow west to east and allow navigation into the Chinese hinterland.
Beijing is not on such a location. While those cities, such as Shanghai Nanjing were located on rivers and were important, the real threat to China always came from the north.
Beijing sits near China’s northern frontier, historically vulnerable to invasions from nomadic groups like the Xiongnu, Khitan, Jurchen, Mongols, and Manchus.
By establishing Beijing as the capital, Chinese dynasties could more effectively defend against northern threats.
The Great Wall of China was extended and reinforced to protect Beijing from Mongol and other steppe incursions.
While it is in the north, Beijing remains close enough to China’s core economic and cultural regions, making it a defensible administrative center without being too distant from the heartland.
When invaders from the north established a foothold in China and established dynasties, Beijing was also close to their centers of power.
When the Mongols invaded and established the Yuan Dynasty from 1271 to 1368 under Kublai Khan, they established their winter capital in the city, which they called Dadu or Khanbaliq, which was yet another name for the same place.
Their summer capital was Shangdu, which was located in what is today Inner Mongolia.
It was under the Mongols that the modern city we know as Beijing began to develop.
The city was designed based on traditional Chinese feng shui principles, with a grid layout that influenced later Beijing.
Construction began in 1267 and was completed by 1276, with major architects incorporating elements of previous capitals like Zhongdu under the Jin Dynasty.
It was surrounded by thick city walls and had 12 gates, each facing a cardinal direction.
At the heart of Dadu was the Imperial Palace which was predecessor to the Forbidden City.
The famous Venetian traveler Marco Polo visited Dadu and described it as a city of unmatched wealth and splendor.
Dadu was a key node on the Silk Road, linking China to Central Asia, Persia, and Europe and the Grand Canal was extended to connect Dadu to southern China, ensuring a steady supply of grain and goods.
As the Mongols had a vast empire beyond that of just the Yuan in China, Dadu became a multicultural center with Mongols, Han Chinese, Central Asians, Persians, and Europeans. Buddhism, Daoism, Islam, and Christianity all flourished under Yuan rule, with temples and mosques built across the city.
When the Yuan dynasty collapsed in 1368, their successor, the Ming Dynasty, initially made Nanjing their capital. In 1403, the Ming finally changed the name of the city to Beijing, which means northern capital. The name that it has today.
The reason for the name change was because the Emperor ordered the construction of an imperial palace to symbolize his power and absolute rule. We know it as the Forbidden City.
Construction began in 1406 and was completed in 1420, involving over 1 million workers, including skilled artisans, laborers, and craftsmen. The palace was truly massive.
The Forbidden City was built following the principles of feng shui and traditional Chinese cosmology, aligning with cardinal directions and sacred spatial organization.
The main halls were built using rare Phoebe zhennan wood transported from Sichuan and Yunnan. The grand marble terraces and pathways came from quarries near Beijing.
Golden yellow roof tiles symbolized imperial authority and special glazed gold-colored floor bricks were used in the main halls.
The Forbidden City covers 720,000 square meters or 180 acres and consists of 980 surviving buildings with over 8,700 rooms. It is enclosed by a 10-meter or 30-foot high wall and a 52-meter or 170-foot wide moat, ensuring security.
There were originally 9,999 rooms, reflecting the mythological idea that only heaven could have 10,000 rooms.
Upon completion, in 1421, Emperor Yongle formally moved the capital to Beijing.
The Ming era saw the expansion of Beijing’s city walls, the construction of key landmarks like the Temple of Heaven, and the establishment of Beijing as the political and cultural center of China.
Beijing and the Forbidden City served as the imperial seat for 14 Ming emperors.
It was damaged by fires and rebuilt multiple times because almost everything was made out of wood.
In 1644, the Manchurian Qing dynasty took control of China and retained Beijing as their capital.
The city expanded, and its architectural grandeur was enhanced with structures like the Summer Palace.
Beijing became a cosmopolitan hub, hosting diverse cultures and influences from across the Qing Empire.
By the 19th century, however, Beijing faced challenges from foreign invasions, including the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion, which devastated parts of the city. I’ve covered these topics in previous episodes.
If you remember back to my episode on the Boxer Rebellion, many western countries had embassies in the city and an entire section of the city was cordoned off just for them.
The siege of the westerners was dramatized in the 1963 movie 55 Days At Peking.
Following the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912, Beijing was renamed once again, this time to Beiping which means “Northern Peace”. The name change was to signify its loss of capital status during the early Republic of China era, as the capital moved to Nanjing.
The city remained a cultural and political battleground during the warlord era, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War.
With the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War, Beijing was reinstated as the capital in 1949 with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
This is a good opportunity to explain the whole Peking/Beijing thing.
While the city currently known as Beijing has changed names several times, as I’ve mentioned, it has never been known as Peking in Chinese. Peking was the name used by many non-Chinese-speaking countries.
The name “Peking” comes from an older romanization system, particularly the French-influenced transcription of the Chinese name. The pronunciation in older Chinese dialects is closer to what Westerners encountered during the Ming and Qing dynasties influenced the spelling of Peking.
In 1958, the People’s Republic of China adopted Pinyin, a standardized romanization system. Pinyin is designed to more accurately reflect the modern Standard Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese words, using the Roman alphabet. Under Pinyin, the city name is pronounced as bèi-j?ng.
Under the communists, the city saw its greatest change since the Mongols and the Mings defined the original capital city.
On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China from the Gate of Heavenly Peace also known as the Tiananmen, in Beijing.
This is probably the most famous view of Beijing as it is the gate where Mao’s photo has been for decades.
The city was restructured to serve as the political and ideological center of Communist China.
The government promoted Soviet-style urban planning, emphasizing large boulevards, state-controlled housing, and industrial zones.
Old Beijing had a vast system of city walls, gates, and hutongs (traditional alleys with courtyard homes).
In the 1950s, the government demolished the outer city walls to make way for new roads, highways, and ring roads.
Hutong neighborhoods were cleared for modern apartments, and socialist-style housing blocks replaced many traditional courtyard homes.
Heavy industry was developed in the western and southern parts of the city and Soviet-style factories and housing complexes were built to support a growing working-class population.
The Cultural Revolution led to massive destruction of historical and religious sites. Temples, palaces, and historic structures were damaged or repurposed. The Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and other landmarks survived but were closed to the public for a period.
Because of the importance of Beijing to the People’s Republic of China, the population of the city exploded. In 1950, there were approximately 1.6 million people in Beijing. By 1980, there were 5.3 million people, 10.2 million in 2000, and 20.4 million in 2020.
While the purposeful destruction of historic buildings mostly ended after the death of Mao, the pressures to expand the city contunited. China changed dramatically in the 1980s and 90s and it was reflected in Beijing.
The First Beijing Subway Line opened in 1969 but was expanded significantly in the 1980s and 1990s.
Ring roads were built around the city to accommodate growing traffic, replacing older streets.
Skyscrapers and commercial districts began appearing, especially around the Central Business District.
With all of this growth, Beijing suffered some of the worst air pollution in the world. The pollution was so bad that it became difficult to breathe on many days. This resulted in the implementation of a “Blue Skies” initiative that significantly improved air quality by closing coal plants, limiting car traffic, and promoting clean energy.
Beijing has subsequently become the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Beijing has come a long way. From the stomping ground for Peking Man hundreds of thousands of years ago to a provincial administrative capital to an imperial capital. Its history, role, and size have made it one of the most important cities on Earth.