Beijing

I

Introduction

Beijing, city and capital of China, located 110 km (68 mi) north-west of the Bohai Gulf in north China. Also known as Peking or, formerly, Peiping, the city is surrounded by Hebei Province although it constitutes an independently administered municipal district of 16,808 sq km (about 6,490 sq mi). Situated at the northern edge of the North China Plain and encircled on the north and west by mountains, Beijing was a strategic northern outpost of the Chinese Empire throughout much of its history. Initially settled more than 2,000 years ago, it has been the capital of China for most of the last 700 years and is today one of the world's great cities. It is the cultural, political, and intellectual centre of China, as well as a major industrial and commercial metropolis. Beijing is the second-largest city in China after Shanghai.

Beijing, like most other Chinese cities large and small, has serious problems of air and water pollution. Rapid population growth and construction along with largely unregulated industrial and residential waste water disposal and burning of coal and other polluting materials are the principal causes.

Mandarin Chinese (putonghua) is the language spoken in and around Beijing. The dialect of Beijing has become the standard for northern Mandarin, the standard form of Mandarin and the official spoken language of the People's Republic.

Just over half of Beijing’s population inhabits the built-up area of the city proper. The remainder live in the surrounding counties in small cities, towns, and villages. The city has low birth and death rates and a very low rate of natural population increase. Most of the city's recent growth has been by immigration, and there are today more than one million transients (visiting workers on temporary permits or illegal entrants) who are not included in the official statistics. Many of these transients live in crude shacks or other temporary shelters or rented dormitory space. They serve as construction workers, domestic servants, and in other low level service activities. Because of their transient status and low income level, they are often blamed for rising crime and social unrest. More than 90 per cent of the population are Han Chinese, and the remainder are Manchus, Mongols, Turkic peoples from western China, and other minority nationalities and foreigners. Population 11,807,000 (2005 estimate).

II

Economy

As the nation's capital and political centre, the particular economic role of Beijing has been a topic of considerable debate and controversy. The city has been designated as an appropriate centre for industrial, commercial, transport, trade, and cultural and scientific development. However, these multiple roles have sometimes conflicted with one another and with the traditional roles of political and cultural centre of China. Especially troublesome has been the extremely rapid industrial development and growth under the Communist ideal and planning policies since the late 1950s of developing Beijing as a “producer” city with a large and diversified industrial base.

The city has become the second-largest industrial centre in China, and major industries have been established in adjacent suburban satellite towns such as Shijingshan (a major iron and steel mill), Tongxian (motor vehicles), Fentai (machinery), and Fangshan (petrochemicals). By the end of 1991 more than 2.1 million workers were employed in industry. A full range of industrial products from processed foods, cotton, and synthetic textiles and garments to paints, paper, high-quality lubricants, and electronic products are now produced in Beijing. Another activity, which has grown rapidly since the introduction of economic reforms in 1978, has been construction. New buildings, roads, factories, and other infrastructural projects appear everywhere, and the pace of new construction is breathtaking. In 1991, 684,000 construction workers were employed in the city of Beijing.

Agriculture continues to employ roughly the same number of farmers (900,000) as it has for the last decade, although its share of income produced has declined in relation to other sectors. Agricultural produce includes grain; a variety of vegetables such as cabbage, tomatoes, aubergine, carrots and onions; milk; eggs; poultry, and pork.

Commercial and service activities have grown rapidly in recent years and now employ well over one million workers. The city has become a centre of shopping and fashion within China, and international products and brands are now commonplace. Several fashionable shopping areas are scattered throughout the city, the most famous of which is Wangfujing Avenue, just east of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The world's largest McDonald's restaurant is located here. Traditional crafts such as cloisonné work, jade carving, lacquerware, and carpet weaving continue, and the city remains famous for its arts and handicrafts.

Beijing is one of China's centres of transport and trade. A large motorway was recently completed to Tianjin, the great industrial port city 90 km (56 mi) to the south-east. Beijing is the hub of a national network of trunk roads. A number of railway lines radiate to all parts of the country from Beijing, and several of these connect to North Korea, Russia, and the Mongolian Democratic Republic. Within the city a number of new ring roads and motorways have recently been constructed, and the Beijing underground system continues to expand as one of China's noteworthy efforts at mass transit. Despite all of the new road construction, traffic has become increasingly congested as more cars have become available. The majority of short journeys in Beijing are made on bicycles, which continue to clog the city's streets. Beijing's international airport has an extensive domestic service to most of the larger cities in China and is also served by a number of international carriers with direct services to North America and Europe as well as East, South-East, and South-West Asia.

The city is a major hub for shopping, retailing, and trade. As the economic reforms of the 1980s and 1990s have proceeded, new joint ventures with foreign capital have become common, and the local economy not only includes enterprises owned by the state and collective units, but also includes many private enterprises and individuals. At the end of 1991, Beijing had 52,000 individually employed workers, known locally as getihu, in commercial activities. The service trades numbered more than 23,500 outlets in the same year and employed 153,000 people.

III

Places of Interest

A

Urban Landscape and Design

The administrative territory of metropolitan Beijing comprises ten urban districts and eight surrounding, largely rural counties. Among the urban areas are four densely built-up city areas surrounded by six neighbouring suburban districts. The latter are growing rapidly as new construction of institutional, industrial and residential buildings cover the landscape and convert former agricultural land to urban use. Further away the rural counties continue to provide basic grain, vegetables, and fruit as well as building materials and water supplies to the city. Some significant recent industrial development has occurred in these rural counties as noted in the satellite towns mentioned above.

The city proper today consists of two distinct parts: an old, formerly walled city and new outlying residential, industrial, and institutional sections built mainly after 1949. As with all important traditional Chinese cities, Beijing was encircled by a large wall and was designed in a rectangular geometric form according to the cardinal points of the compass. The city was arranged in north-south linear fashion with the key north-south axis extending from the main gates through the Forbidden City and to the Drum and Bell Towers behind. The Forbidden City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987, was comprised of the walled palace and inner compound of China's emperors and imperial family and their retainers, and was so named because ordinary citizens were not allowed inside. This was the most revered space in traditional, imperial China. Today it contains the Palace Museum, or palaces of the former Ming and Qing emperors of China.

The old city was comprised of two sections, a square inner city on the north side constructed between 1409 and 1420 and surrounded by a large 15 m (49 ft) high wall, containing nine gates. This inner city largely coincided with the site of the previous Yuan Dynasty capital of Da Du. Within the inner city were the Imperial City which contained government offices, temples, gardens, palaces, and parks as well as the most sacred Forbidden City. Outside the Imperial City were quarters which contained the markets and other temples as well as residential quarters. The wall was approximately 25 km (15 mi) in length.

The second section was the southern outer city which was built towards the end of the Ming Dynasty (1521-1566). It was rectangular in shape and had a wall 23.5 km (14 mi) in length, of which 6.7 km (4 mi) was the southern wall of the old inner city. It contained important ritual temple areas as well as residential space for the populace. The geometric design was symbolically important as the main north-south central axis represented the imperial authority and ran through many key government offices, buildings, imperial residences and main gates. This tradition has continued today as Tiananmen Square and Mao's tomb are both aligned on the axis. After the Revolution in 1949, the old city walls were torn down and replaced by arterial boulevards, but several of the old gates were preserved. Despite much recent highrise construction, Beijing remains a city of great monuments, palaces, temples, and other reminders of the past glory of imperial China. It is a magnificent city, and today continues to represent the crowning achievement of urban design and city building in traditional and contemporary China.

B

Landmarks

Beijing has many edifices of historical and architectural interest. The Palace Museum or Gu Gong, located within the Forbidden City, was the former residence and official locus of the imperial family and court. Built more than 500 years ago, this complex comprises a series of great halls and palaces, which served for official and ceremonial occasions of state, banquets and for residential purposes. To the west of this complex is Zhongnan Hai, a large park and cluster of lakes that is walled and serves today as the residential compound for China's top leadership.

Immediately south of the Forbidden City and the Palace Museum is Tiananmen Square, which is the central core of the city. Tiananmen Square is a huge plaza that can hold up to a million people and was developed after the successful communist revolution in 1949. It is the site of great annual celebrations and rallies such as the National Day celebrations on October 1. On the west side of the Square is located the Great Hall of the People where China's National Assembly meets. On the east side is the Museum of China's History and Revolution. In the centre is the monument to the Heroes of the People and the mausoleum of the late Chairman Mao Zedong. The Square received considerable notoriety in 1989 when it was the site of the student Tiananmen Square protest, which was violently suppressed by the army in a bloody massacre on June 6.

Of the many temples in the old city, perhaps the best known and most beautiful is the complex known as the Temple of Heaven (Tian Tan), a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998, located in the southern part of the outer city. Here are located two magnificent circular ceremonial buildings with blue tiled roofs that were shrines where China's emperors worshipped. These are considered among the highest architectural achievements of traditional China. These temples and associated grounds were opened as a public park following the revolution. Other noteworthy temples include the Confucian and Lama Temples and the Temple of the White Dagoba built to commemorate the visit of the Dalai Lama of Tibet in 1651. Major sporting events are held at the Beijing Stadium, the Workers' Stadium and the Sports Ground. A new Olympic Park is to be completed on the outskirts of the city in time for the 2008 Olympic Games. Other parks include the Summer Palace, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 and is situated in the north-west suburbs, and the surrounding temples and parks known as the Fragrant Hills. These date back many centuries and were established as hunting grounds or religious retreat areas. In the north-western suburbs are tombs of most of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). These tombs are approached by the long Avenue of the Animals, lined with marble lions, elephants, camels, and horses. Located north-west of the Ming Tombs, within the municipal boundaries, is a portion of the Great Wall at Badaling. It is accessible as a day trip from central Beijing.