Ancient Roots: The States of Ji and Yan

The earliest known settlement on the site of present-day Beijing was the city of "Ji" (薊), a fortified city that stood in the southwest of modern Beijing during the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. Around the 7th century BCE, the larger state of Yan annexed Ji and made it its capital.

A Regional Capital under the Liao and Jin

Between the 10th and 13th centuries CE, the nomadic Khitan and Jurchen peoples made Beijing the regional capital of their successive states, the Liao dynasty and later the Jin dynasty.

Capital of a Unified Empire: Yuan, Ming, and Qing

The year 1271 marked a pivotal turning point, when Kublai Khan founded the Yuan dynasty and made Beijing, as "Dadu," the capital of the first unified Chinese empire. The Ming dynasty followed in 1368, and under the Yongle Emperor, the capital was officially moved from Nanjing to Beijing, with construction of the Forbidden City undertaken between 1406 and 1420. The palace remained the seat of twenty-four emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties until 1911.

The Fall of Imperial Rule and the Early Twentieth Century

The turn of the twentieth century brought major upheaval, most notably the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, before the 1911 Revolution (Xinhai Revolution) brought an end to more than two thousand years of imperial rule. Beijing remained the political capital until 1928, when the Kuomintang government moved the capital to Nanjing and renamed Beijing "Beiping."

Japanese Occupation and Civil War

The city fell under Japanese occupation between 1937 and 1945, before returning to Chinese control following Japan's defeat. China then entered a civil war, which the Communist Party ultimately won.

Capital of the People's Republic of China

On September 27, 1949, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference decided to make Beijing the capital of the new state, and on October 1, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China from atop Tiananmen Gate.

Beijing in the Modern Era

Since the late twentieth century, Beijing has undergone massive modernization, culminating in hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics. Districts such as Zhongguancun have flourished into a leading technology hub, all while Beijing has retained its imperial heritage, embodied in its palaces, temples, and historic alleyways, including its Islamic quarter around Niujie Mosque.