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. Beijing
Population: 12.6 million
Area: 16,800 sq km
Tel: 010
The mountains are high and the emperor is foar way's says an ancient Chinese proverb, meaning that the further one moves from Beijing's grasp, the better. Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China(PRC), is where they move the cogs and wheels of the Chinese univers.

  Those who have sulgged it out in hard-seat trains and remshackle buses through the poverty-stricken interior of Beijing. The city boasts some of China's best restaurants and recreation facilities, and palatial hotels fit for an emperor. Foreigners who have passed their time only in Beijing without seeing the rest of China come away with the impresion that everythings is hunkydory in China.

  Whatever impresssion you come away with, Beijing is not a realistci window on China, especially after its facelift prior to China's 50th anniversary, it's too much of a cosmetic showscase to qualify. However, with a bit f effort you can get out of the make-up depatment: In between the winde boulevards, high-rise and militaristci structures are some historical and cultural treasures.

. The Forbidden City, the centre of power in the Middle Kingdom for more than 500 years
. Tiantan(Temple of Heaven), a perfect example of Ming architecture and the symbol of Beijing
. the Summer Palace, the lovely gardens of China's imperial rules in stunning setting beside Kunming Hu
. The Great Wall, ancient China's greatest public works projest and now the national's leading tourist attraction
. The Hutong, Beijing's traditional neighbourhoods

. Beijing History
Although the area south-west of the city was inhabited by cave dewellers some 500,000 years ago, the earliest records of settlements in Beijing date from around 1000BC. The city developed as a fronter trading town for the Mongols, Koreans and tribes from Shangdong and central China, By the Warring States Period it had grown to he the capital of the Yan kingdom. The town underwent a number of changes as it acquired new warlords-the Khitan Mongols and Manchurian Juchen tribes among them. During the Liao dynastery, Beijing was referred to a yanjing(capital of Yan), and this is the name used for Beijing's most popular beer. 

  Beijing's history really gets under way in AD 1215, the yar Genghis Khan set fire to yanjing and slaughtere everything in sight. Fro the ashes emerged Dau(Great Capital), alias Khanbaliq, the Khan's town. By 1279 Genghis Khan's graandson Kublai had made himself ruler of most of Asia, and Khanbaliq was his capital. With a lull in the fighting from 1280 to 1300, foreigners managed to drop in along the Silk Road for tea with the Great Kham. The mercenary Zhu Yanhang led an uprising in 1368, taking over the city and ushering in the Ming dynasty. The city was renamed Beiping(Northern Peace)and for the next 35 years the capital was shifted shouth to Nanjing. 

  The first change of government came with the Manchus, who invaded China and established to Qing dynasty. Under them, and particularly during the reigns of the emperors Kangxi and Qianlong, Beijing was expanded and rnovated, and summer palace, pagodas and temples were built. 

  In the last 120 years of the Qing dynasty, Beijing, and subsequently China, were subjected to power struggles, invaders and the chaos they caused: the Anglo-French troops who in 1860 marched in and burnt the Old Summer Palace to the ground; the corrupt regime under Empress Dowager Cixi; the Boxers; General Yuan Shikai; the warlords; the Janpanese who occupied the city in 1937; an dthe Kuomintang after the Janpanese defeat. Beijing changed hands again in January 194 when People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops entered the city. On 1 October of that year Mao proclaimed a 'Poeople's Republic' to an audience of some 500,000 citizens in Tianme Square.

  Like the emperors before them, the communists have significantly altered the face of Beijing to suit their own image. Down came te commemorative arches, while blocks ofbuildings were reduced to rubbleto widen major  blulevards. From 1950 to 1952 the outer walls were levelled in the interests of traffic circulation. Soviet experts and technicians pored in, which may explain the Stalinesque features on the public structures that went up. The capitalist-style brought foreign money, new high-rises, frrways and shopping malls.