Northern Capital holds 21.8 million and Peking Man caves
Beijing, once Peking, is China's capital and the world's most populous national capital, with more than 21.8 million residents. The name means Northern Capital. Zhoukoudian caves nearby yielded Homo erectus Peking Man, while the first walled city Ji sat near today's Guang'anmen.
The Zhoukoudian fossils, from Dragon Bone Hill in Fangshan District, are 230,000 to 250,000 years old, and modern humans camped in the same caves about 27,000 years ago. The walled town of Ji was later taken by the state of Yan, which moved its capital there from 45 kilometres to the southwest. After 221 BC it served the Qin and Han as a commandery seat, and when the Sui reunified China in 581 it became the northern end of the Grand Canal. The Tang used it as a frontier command, and the rebel An Lushan briefly named it Yanjing.
The Khitan Liao took the city in 938 as one of their secondary capitals, leaving pagodas such as the Tianning that still stand. The Jurchen Jin made it their Central Capital in 1153, but Genghis Khan's army besieged it in 1213 and razed it two years later. Kublai Khan then built Dadu, or Khanbaliq, between 1264 and 1293; stretches of its rammed-earth wall survive as the Tucheng.
The Ming founder took the city in 1368, flattened the Yuan palaces and renamed it Beiping, Northern Peace. His son Zhu Di, who had held it as Prince of Yan, seized the throne, renamed it Beijing in 1403 and built the Forbidden City from 1406 to 1420, along with the Temple of Heaven. For most of the 15th to 18th centuries it was probably the largest city on earth. The Ming wall stood until 1965, when the subway was laid along its foundations.
Li Zicheng's rebels captured the city in 1644 but left without fighting when Qing forces arrived 40 days later. The Qing kept the Ming layout and added the Old Summer Palace and Summer Palace gardens to the northwest.
Source: Beijing
