Beijing

Beijing (pinyin bei3 jing1; Pei Ching in Wade-Giles; Pekin or Peking in
the western vernacular, a corruption of Hakka Pet Kin) is the capital city
of the People's Republic of China, with 13,000,000 inhabitants. Beijing
Municipality is about 16,800 km2. The municipality governs 10 districts and
8 counties. It literally means "northern capital".

Beijing is sometimes referred to as Peking. The term originated with French
missionaries four hundred years ago, and corresponds to an archaic
pronunciation which does not take into account a 'k' to 'j' sound shift in
Mandarin that occurred during the Qing dynasty (used almost exclusively
today in Hakka dialects in Fujian).

In China, the city has had many names. Between 1911 and 1949, it was known
as Beiping or "Northern Peace". The name was changed because jing means
"capital" and the Kuomintang government in Nanjing wanted to emphasize that
Beijing was not the capital of China. Curiously, many maps of China from
Taiwan still use the old name, although most people in Taiwan call the city Beijing.

Beijing will be the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Famous landmarks around Beijing include:

   * Forbidden City
   * Tiananmen Square, site of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
   * The Great Wall
   * The Temple of Heaven
   * The Summer Palace
   * Ruins of the Old Summer Palace
   * Gulou -- The Drum Tower

Universities include:

   * Peking University
   * Tsinghua University
   * Beijing Institute of Technology
   * Beijing Institute of Posts and Communication
   * Beijing Normal University
   * Beijing Science and Technology University
   * Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics
   * China Algricultural University
   * China Geosciences University
   * China University of Mine Technology
   * Renmin University of China
   * Northern Jiaotong University

Airports include:

   * Beijing Capital International Airport

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