Beijing
Beijing,[a] alternatively romanized as Peking,[b] is the capital of China. With more than 22 million residents,[9] Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city after Shanghai.[10] It is located in Northern China, and is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the State Council with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts.[11] Beijing is mostly surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin to the southeast; together, the three divisions form the Jingjinji megalopolis and the national capital region of China.[12]
"Peking" redirects here. For other uses, see Peking (disambiguation) and Beijing (disambiguation).
Beijing
北京Peking
1045 BC
16 districts
343 towns and subdistricts
Beijing Municipal People's Congress
53 deputies
16,410.54 km2 (6,336.14 sq mi)
16,410.54 km2 (6,336.14 sq mi)
16,410.54 km2 (6,336.14 sq mi)
12,796.5 km2 (4,940.8 sq mi)
43.5 m (142.7 ft)
2,303 m (7,556 ft)
21,893,095
1,300/km2 (3,500/sq mi)
21,893,095
1,300/km2 (3,500/sq mi)
22,366,547
1,700/km2 (4,500/sq mi)
95%
¥4.161 trillion (13th)
$618.648 billion (nominal)
$1.016 trillion (PPP)
¥190,059 (2nd)
$28,258 (nominal)
$46,401 (PPP)
0.7%
京A, C, E, F, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, Y
京B (taxis)
京G (outside urban area)
京O, D (police and authorities)
- BJ / 京 (jīng)
China rose (Rosa chinensis)
Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)
Chinese arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis)
Pagoda tree (Styphnolobium japonicum)
Běijīng
"Northern Capital"
Běijīng
Běijīng
ㄅㄟˇ ㄐㄧㄥ
Beeijing
Pei3-ching1
Běijing
Poh-cin
Bet5-gin1
Bākgīng
bak1 ging1
Pak-kiaⁿ
Pak-kiann
Báe̤k-gĭng
Beijing is a global city and one of the world's leading centres for culture, diplomacy, politics, finance, business and economics, education, research, language, tourism, media, sport, science and technology and transportation and art. It is home to the headquarters of most of China's largest state-owned companies and houses the largest number of Fortune Global 500 companies in the world, as well as the world's four biggest financial institutions by total assets.[13] It is also a major hub for the national highway, expressway, railway, and high-speed rail networks. For a decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beijing Capital International Airport was Asia's busiest airport (2009–2019) and the second busiest airport in the world (2010–2019).[14] In 2020, the Beijing subway was the fourth busiest and second longest in the world.[15] The Beijing Daxing International Airport, Beijing's second international airport, is the largest single-structure airport terminal in the world.[16][17]
Combining both modern and traditional style architectures, Beijing is one of the oldest cities in the world, with a rich history dating back over three millennia. As the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political center of the country for most of the past eight centuries,[18] and was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium CE.[19] With mountains surrounding the inland city on three sides, in addition to the old inner and outer city walls, Beijing was strategically poised and developed to be the residence of the emperor and thus was the perfect location for the imperial capital. The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates.[20] Beijing is one of the most important tourist destinations of the world. In 2018, Beijing was the second highest earning tourist city in the world after Shanghai.[21] Beijing is home to many national monuments and museums and has seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Ming Tombs, Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site, and parts of the Great Wall and the Grand Canal—all of which are popular tourist locations.[22] Siheyuans, the city's traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing.
Beijing's public universities make up more than one-fifth of Double First-Class Construction universities, and many of them consistently rank among the best in the Asia-Pacific and the world.[23][24][25] Beijing is home to the two best C9 League universities (Tsinghua and Peking) in Asia & Oceania region and emerging countries.[26][27] Beijing CBD is a center for Beijing's economic expansion, with the ongoing or recently completed construction of multiple skyscrapers. Beijing's Zhongguancun area is a world leading center of scientific and technological innovation as well as entrepreneurship. Beijing has been ranked the city with the largest scientific research output by the Nature Index since the list's inception in 2016.[28][29] The city has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable being the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2008 Summer Paralympics Games. In 2022, Beijing became the first city ever to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics,[30] and also the Summer and Winter Paralympics.[31] Beijing hosts 175 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many organizations, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Silk Road Fund, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Central Academy of Drama, the Central Conservatory of Music, and the Red Cross Society of China.
Nature and wildlife[edit]
Beijing Municipality has 20 nature reserves that have a total area of 1,339.7 km2 (517.3 sq mi).[241] The mountains to the west and north of the city are home to a number of protected wildlife species including leopard, leopard cat, wolf, red fox, wild boar, masked palm civet, raccoon dog, hog badger, Siberian weasel, Amur hedgehog, roe deer, and mandarin rat snake.[242][243][244] The Beijing Aquatic Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center protects the Chinese giant salamander, Amur stickleback and mandarin duck on the Huaijiu and Huaisha Rivers in Huairou District.[245] The Beijing Milu Park south of the city is home to one of the largest herds of Père David's deer, now extinct in the wild. The Beijing barbastelle, a species of vesper bat discovered in caves of Fangshan District in 2001 and identified as a distinct species in 2007, is endemic to Beijing. The mountains of Fangshan are also habitat for the more common Beijing mouse-eared bat, large myotis, greater horseshoe bat and Rickett's big-footed bat.[246]
Each year, Beijing hosts 200–300 species of migratory birds including the common crane, black-headed gull, swan, mallard, common cuckoo and the endangered yellow-breasted bunting.[247][248] In May 2016, Common cuckoos nesting in the wetlands of Cuihu (Haidian), Hanshiqiao (Shunyi), Yeyahu (Yanqing) were tagged and have been traced to far as India, Kenya and Mozambique.[249][250] In the fall of 2016, the Beijing Forest Police undertook a month-long campaign to crack down on illegal hunting and trapping of migratory birds for sale in local bird markets.[248] Over 1,000 rescued birds of protected species including streptopelia, Eurasian siskin, crested myna, coal tit and great tit were handed to the Beijing Wildlife Protection and Rescue Center for repatriation to the wild.[248][251]
The city flowers are the Chinese rose and chrysanthemum.[252] The city trees are the Chinese arborvitae, an evergreen in the cypress family and the pagoda tree, also called the Chinese scholar tree, a deciduous tree of the family Fabaceae.[252] The oldest scholar tree in the city was planted in what is now Beihai Park during the Tang dynasty.[253]
(Representative Office)
Haiti
(Representative Office)
